Hospital thief gets year in prison

The man who broke into the physiotherapy laboratory at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) and stole a number of items, told the court he did it to get money to support his drug habit.{{more}}

For his actions, Bryan Richards of Kingstown/ Biabou was on Wednesday, sentenced to a year’s imprisonment by magistrate Ricky Burnett.

Richards pleaded guilty to stealing a transformer, a computer, rotary tools, cleaning supplies, and a screwdriver with Allen keys, valued at $1,176, the property of the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The court heard that on August 3, 2013, senior physiotherapist at the MCMH Janelle Ballah secured the lab before leaving.

At about 6 a.m. the following day, the security guard was patrolling the area when he noticed the lock on the door of the lab was broken off.

The authorities were called in, and investigations led to Richards.

Richards had to be brought to court from Her Majesty’s Prisons, where he is serving a three-year sentence for offences of a similar nature.

His one-year sentence will run consecutively to the sentence he was serving before.

The 43-year-old artist explained to the magistrate that he ran out of paint and got up caught in drugs.

A former worker at the hospital, Richards said “I went to the hospital because I needed the money to smoke drugs.

“I want to come off drugs. I apologize to the hospital and court for my actions,” Richards said.

Only the computer was recovered.(KW)