A MAN WHO stole goods and buried it in a three feet deep hole in his yard to hide them from the police was slapped with a nine-month prison sentence when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
It is alleged that on December 22, the accused Dewayne Leward, 23, of a Jacks Hill address, entered a man's home in Jacks Hill that was left opened and stole about 21 items including a computer and a JVC component set.
In an effort to throw police off the trail, the accused reportedly dug a hole three feet deep by eight feet wide at his house and buried the goods. The items were covered with a tarpaulin and the hole filled with dirt.
On May 28, the investigators went to Leward's home at Harrymon Close in Jacks Hills in search of the stolen items and while walking in the yard discovered that a section of the ground was hollow. The stolen items were found after the area was dug up by the police.
The accused was arrested and charged with larceny from a dwelling, receiving stolen property and possession of ganja. While pleading guilty to the possession of ganja charge, he claimed he was innocent of the other charges.
"Is my friend ask me to keep the computer, your honour," he told the court "I never know weh him get it from."
"Is your friend tell you to bury the computer to," Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle asked.
"No is fi im idea. Him ask mi if mi caan keep it and I said I did not have anywhere to keep it suh him dig a hole and bury it," he told the court.
Leward claimed he was not at home when this occurred and was unaware of what his friend had done.
He was fined $200 or 10 days for the possession of ganja and while the charge of larceny from a dwelling was dropped because of lack of evidence, he was sentenced to nine months imprisonment at hard labour after changing his plea to guilty to the charge of receiving stolen property.
"Nine months imprisonment at hard labour and that is final," RM Gayle said, handing down his sentence.
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to