Man guilty of stealing car gets 5 years

A 34-year-old man from Cocoyea Village, San Fernando, was yesterday sentenced to five years in prison by Justice Rajendra Narine in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court after a jury found him guilty of larceny. The jury deliberated for only 20 minutes before convicting Earle Francois of the theft of a motor vehicle belonging to Rodney DeGail on February 17, 1998. State prosecutor Jeron Joseph told the Court that    DeGail secured his vehicle valued at $12,000  at 8.20 pm, in the vicinity of Woodbrook. At about 9 pm, during their mobile patrol, PCs Andy Wallace and Ricardo Jones saw Francois fidgeting in a vehicle at Lady Young Road, Morvant. Francois said that the car had “stalled” and the police officers asked him if he needed assistance.

Francois opened the bonnet of the vehicle for the police officers and ran away from the scene. A chase ensued and when apprehended and questioned, Francois allegedly told the police officers, “Boss, you know how things is.” Documents belonging to DeGail were found in the vehicle. Francois’ attorney, Cecil Pope, put forward the defence that Francois had accepted a lift from two men who were going to San Fernando. However, there were mechanical problems and one of the men left the vehicle to get gasoline and the other man left saying he lived nearby and he wanted to return home. Justice Narine, when sentencing Francois, said that the crime of larceny was a prevalent and serious one but had to take into consideration the fact that Francois had no previous convictions. Francois was subsequently sentenced to serve five years imprisonment, instead of the maximum punishment of 15 years.