Magistrate Browne: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

Biting the hand that feeds you can only lead to serious repercussions. Unfortunately for Junior Jack, he had to learn the hard way.{{more}}

The Byera man, employed at the Frangipani Hotel, in Belmont, Bequia, pleaded guilty to stealing the hotel’s compressor, valued at $1,000 on April 7, 2010. He also pleaded guilty to escaping police custody on April 15.

Senior Magistrate Donald Browne sentenced Jack to six months imprisonment on each count at the Kingstown Magistrate Court on April 16, 2010. The sentences will run consecutively.

In relation to the first charge, information read out in court heard that Jack, who had been employed at the hotel for nearly two years, sold the compressor to someone who in turn, took it back to the hotel and informed personnel there that it was Jack who had made the transaction.

Investigations carried out by police led to Jack’s arrest. While in custody, Jack made a daring escape from the police station. He explained to the court that while he was being held, he was not given anything to eat and decided to run away.

With tears streaming down his face, Jack also explained that by the time he pays all of his bills, there is hardly enough left for him to get by. “Please don’t send me to jail…I wouldn’t do it again,” he cried.

Seemingly irritated by Jack’s explanation, Magistrate Browne called Jack “Greedy”. “I’m sure you getting more money down there (Bequia) than people get up here and you go and bite the hands that feed you,” Browne asserted. Browne added that it is embarrassing when people from the mainland go down to the Grenadines and steal.

This is not the first time Jack has been in trouble with the Hotel. Station Sergeant Glenford Gregg told the court that Jack was on probation from the Hotel after he carried out unauthorised business on behalf of the company.(KW)