BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – “I feel tremendous guilt and remorse for the choice that I have made and the pain I have caused other people.”
Those were the words recorded in the social inquiry report of ex-bailiff Talbert Warner, who was yesterday (Mar. 28) sentenced to four years imprisonment on a charge of larceny and embezzlement.
Warner, who joined the Police Force in 1996 but left that profession to become a magistrate’s Court bailiff in 2004, pleaded guilty on March 5, 2011 to the charge which involved EC$1 667 paid to him by a female whom he had issued a warrant.
According to the evidence in court, the virtual complainant (VC) had owed a sum of money to a business entity and Warner went to collect it. However, at the time of collection, the person could have only afforded to pay EC$800 and Warner did not give her a receipt.
Some weeks later, the VC paid to Warner the remainder of the money owed and he then issued her a receipt for the total amount, but converted the money to his own use.
At the first hearing of his trial on January 18, 2011, Warner had pleaded not guilty to the February, 2, 2006 crime he committed in Basseterre. He however chose not to waste the court’s time and changed his plea on March 5.
His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas sentenced him to four years in prison to run concurrently with a previous five-year sentence for a similar offence.
At his sentencing hearing at the Basseterre High Court on March 28, Warner’s lawyer defence counsel Angela Inniss said they understand the seriousness of the crime and that her client stands ready to repay society.
In his social inquiry report prepared by Probation Officer Wingrove George and referred to by Inniss, Warner stated, “I am also consumed by plenty of guilt, remorse and shame, and I should have known better seeing that I was a police officer and I am totally disappointed in myself.”
Justice Thomas said that although it was not a crime of violence, it was categorised as one of dishonesty.
“Mr. Warner what you have done reflects not only on you but the police force you served. One can always understand a traffic offense but not dishonesty. A police officer has no excuse for committing a crime of this nature. Your duty is to uphold the law…those principles you learn should never leave you,” the judge told him.
Justice Thomas also told him that it would not be easy for him to be behind the iron gates as an ex-law enforcement personnel. The judge also told Warner that it must be humiliating for him and that he would have some mercy on him because he believed he had learnt from his mistakes.
Upon exiting the court, the husband and father of four hugged his teary-eyed wife before departing for Her Majesty's Prison.
