BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A former magistrate’s court bailiff has decided not to waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty to two charges preferred against him.
Talbert Warner of St. Paul’s Village was charged with larceny and embezzlement of EC$1,667 while executing his duties as a bailiff in Basseterre on February 2, 2006.
Warner appeared before His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas at the Basseterre High Court yesterday (Mar. 5) and defence counsel Angela Inniss told the court that he had requested the charges be re-read to him. This was done and Warner pleaded guilty to both charges.
Justice Thomas told the accused that he has to return to court for his sentencing hearing on Thursday, March 24, 2011.
This is the second time Warner has been charged for larceny and embezzlement. On July 15, 2010, he was sentenced to serve five years at Her Majesty’s Prison for larceny and embezzlement of EC$2,004.55; an incident that occurred on January 24, 2005.
The money had belonged to Venette Tyrell-Andrews, who testified that she had given it to Warner after she had received a letter from the law firm of Kelsick, Wilkin and Ferdinand stating that she had owed Cable and Wireless a sum of money.
Tyrell-Andrews told the court that she immediately went to the Basseterre Magistrate’s Court to pay her debt.
She added that she gave the money to Warner, who issued her a receipt which was later discovered not to have been written from a government-issued book but from one owned by him.
The then High Court judge, His Lordship Justice Francis Belle, found him guilty and before passing sentence said, “Leave people’s money alone! If you want money then get a second job. The mercy I will extend on you is that I wouldn’t give you the maximum sentence of seven years. You have to see money and leave it.”
