BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - SEEMINGLY seeking to make Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) his permanent residence, Sylvester ‘Munkush’ Hodge was yet again sentenced to serve time there for offences involving dishonesty.
Earlier in the current assizes, Hodge – who is no stranger to the halls of the prison - pleaded guilty to all of the four counts which appeared on his indictment: house breaking and larceny, uttering a forged document, obtaining credit by false pretence and obtaining credit by false pretence.
He stood before Justice Francis Belle yesterday (Oct. 14) for his sentencing hearing, during which the facts of the case were read and an explanation offered.
The facts indicate that on January 24, 2008, the virtual complainant (VC) in the case awoke at about 4:00 a.m. and began preparation to travel later that day. The VC packed a handbag and when she returned to the area where she placed it, she realised it was missing along with the National Bank cheque book which was within. The facts further indicate that all her doors were locked but she discovered that one of the windows to the house was ajar.
On February 8, 2009, Hodge purchased a bottle of rum from CEMACO Supermarket and paid for it with a cheque. Sometime later, it was discovered that the cheque had a fault and the police were notified. When questioned by the police, Hodge admitted that he did purchase the bottle of alcohol and paid for it with the cheque. He however stated that he did not steal the cheque…it was given to him.
In his explanation to the court, Hodge indicated that he made a mistake in pleading guilty to the “house breaking and larceny” charge and offered the name of the person from whom he claimed he got the cheque.
“The reason why I pled guilty for the charges, is not that I went to this lady’s place and took she bag out of her place…I did not take the woman’s cheque. I received it from Wendell Peets. He told me to change it and he will give me something out of it. I did not know it was stolen. I made a mistake by pleading guilty to house breaking and larceny.”
Hodge went as far as to suggest to the court not sentence him to prison but to issue him a fine and place him on probation, which would afford him the opportunity to be re-enter society, rehabilitate himself and prove himself as an upstanding citizen.
Describing the 40-plus-year-old as “a person with a serious history”, Justice Belle told Hodge that he is a fitting candidate to “teach rehabilitation” at Her Majesty’s Prison. His Lordship explained that he believes Hodge should be speaking to those first-time residents of HMP in order to dissuade them from committing crimes.
His previous convictions, eight of which involved some form of dishonesty, did nothing to persuade the court to issue a fine as opposed to imposing a custodial sentence.
Although Hodge was careful not to waste the court’s time, he was told by His Lordship that “society needs to see less of you”. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on the first count, one year on the second and on the third and fourth he was sentenced to “time served”, which are all to run concurrently. His stint at Her Majesty’s Prison is to be served with hard labour as ordered by the court.
