Security guard jailed for housebreaking, theft

A former Arima security guard, who appeared in the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on eight charges of house-breaking and theft — most of them at Grafton in the Black Rock area, was jailed for 12 months with hard labour after he pleaded guilty to one of the charges. Arnold Jones, 20, of 4A Victory Street, Arima, who told the court he had been employed with Swat Security Services at Stone Haven Villas, Grafton, was sent to prison after he admitted stealing just over $2,000 from one of the villas he previously guarded. Jones was sentenced by Senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie in the Scarborough First Court on Monday. He was charged by Detective PC Earl Arthur, of the Scarborough CID. “You are a guard who should know wrong from right; instead you used your knowledge of Stone Haven Villas to steal,” the Magistrate told the young ex-security guard as she imposed the jail term. Jones claimed he had stolen the money to help in meeting the cost of surgery for his mother, but told the Magistrate he had used $1,000 of the stolen $2,350 to make a bank loan payment for his girlfriend.

After several tries and different figures, he could not tell the court the cost of his mother’s surgery. “You go and show off with your girlfriend; you don’t even know how much your mother’s surgery cost. There is no reason why I should show you any mercy!” the Magistrate declared, having earlier asserted: “I have no Christmas spirit; I don’t know anything about any ‘yuletide season.’” The court heard that around 4.30 pm on August 13,  the virtual complainant, who was occupying a villa at Stone Haven, left the villa unsecured and went to a nearby restaurant. He returned three hours later to find the place ransacked and $2,350 missing. Jones is to reappear in court on December 31 with respect to the other seven charges.