104 days jail for stealing

Ronald Mohammed, 59, pleaded guilty to his 20th charge before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John in the San Fernando First Court. He pleaded guilty to stealing Sunita Jugmohan’s purse at Southern Specialist Centre, Quenca Street on Tuesday. He also pleaded guilty to stealing a bottle of rum, a can of preserved fruit and two cartons of juice. He entered a guilty plea as well for possession of a ball-pein hammer, a wrench and a screw driver.

Court prosecutor Cleyon Seedan said that at about 12.25 pm on Tuesday, police officers from San Fernando CID, acting on a report, spotted Mohammed on Quenca Street with a bag in his hand.

Mohammed ran, the court heard, but was later apprehended and when officers searched the bag, they found the items.

Mohammed told Magistrate Forde-John that he stole the money and other items but pleaded for leniency saying his house was burnt last December and he had been on the streets since.

“For three days I was like going mad...I only now catch back myself,” Mohammed said.

Magistrate Forde-John was not moved by his excuses saying that before this latest case, Mohammed had chalked up a career tally of 19 criminal offences over a 25-year period. “You have been in the system for the past 25 years. Your last conviction was in 2014,” Forde-John said.

She sentenced him to 60 days in prison for breaking and entering and stealing the rum, juice and preserved fruit, 30 days for stealing the $800 and 14 days for possession of house breaking implements. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently rather than consecutively, which means, all together, Mohammed will serve 60 days in prison.