Judge Places Fines on Convicts for Receiving Charges
By Suelika N. Buchanan
~~Adz:Left~~ (Basseterre; St. Kitts): James Ham and Wendell Peets both received fines for pleading guilty to separate “Receiving” charges, on Monday, Oct. 29, at the Basseterre High Court.
The evidence given in court concerning the case of Ham reveals that a number of items valuing at $7,500, including a computer, were stolen from the office of Wycliffe Morton on Victoria Road.
The police visited the home of Ham and found the items there. In his statement to the Police during on the discovery of the computer in his home, Ham told the Police that he had gotten it from a man named “Elba”.
In court Ham changed his story and told His Lordship Francis Belle that his girlfriend had brought the computer by his home and had asked him to hold it for her.
He told her he couldn’t hold it for long because he was leaving to go to the Virgin Islands and the day before he was scheduled to leave the police came to his home.
Before his sentencing Ham apologized to Morton and said that the value of decision making is very important in today’s society.
“The circumstances for receiving seems murky, I can’t seem to get a straight answer out of you. This is the last time I’m listening to your shifting story but since this is your first time at the High Court, I will only place a fine on you,” the Judge told Ham.
He was then ordered to pay a fine a $3,000 in six months or 18 months in prison in default.
In the other case, Wendell Peets pleaded guilty to the crime, with explanation.
Peets told the court that on May 5, 2006, he left his home and walked across the Fort Thomas Road until he heard a noise coming from a building that was formerly known as Club 21.
~~Adz:Right~~ He said he went inside the building and saw two occupants inside and also saw papers and blank cheques on the ground.
He said that one of the persons in the building told him he can take the cheques and he took them and went with them.
Peets added that he had not walked twenty feet away from the building when he was intercepted by Officer Percival who searched him and found the blank cheques.
He was then taken to the Police Station where he was subsequently charged with the offence.
The evidence given in court was that on May 1, 2006, an employee of the Electricity Department discovered that one of the offices had been vandalized and a Royal Bank of Canada cheque book belonging to one of their clients was missing.
Peets begged His Lordship for leniency in his sentencing to which he received a fine of $1,000 to be paid in three months or in default 18 months in prison.
