Criminal with 50 years experience advised to retire

A 62-year-old man with a long criminal record related to dishonesty has been advised to retire after coming before the court this week for stealing shilling oil from Coreas.

Prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche told Raphael Hutchins of Villa this, after Hutchins was revealed to have 23 past convictions, and Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne advised the defendant that he was “too old for this nonsense.”

The court had heard just before that on Monday, May 11, Hutchins entered the Coreas Pharmacy at 10:30 am. He was kept under observation by an employee of the store, who noticed that he took up two bottles of shilling oil, valued at $64.54 from a shelf. Hutchins was seen placing them in his left shirt pocket before covering this pocket with a newspaper he was holding in his hand.

He then approached the employee, who was at a counter, and asked her for Paracetamol. He was told they only had Ibuprofen, and Hutchins decided to buy this instead. When asked if he had anything else to pay for, he said no.

The employee and a security guard followed him until he left the store, and when he left, they stopped him, asking if he had anything to declare. Hutchins insisted he did not, until he was brought back into the store, at which time, he produced the two bottles of shilling oil.

The police were summoned, and they arrested Hutchins, who told them “Officer give me a chance please, me head kinda gone.”

The police produced a substantial criminal record in the 62-year-old’s name when the matter came before the court.

When the magistrate perused it, she commented, “And you love Coreas…” After continuing to read it, she observed, “…you really love Coreas. Wow.”

The defendant decided to explain some things to the magistrate, including that he was shopping for an older woman.

The prosecutor asked him, “Listen to me, the lady gave you money to shop right?”, to which he replied that she did.

The magistrate asked him what the older woman asked him to pick up, and Hutchins told her that it was painkillers, and he also admitted, after further probing, that the shilling oil was not on the list.

Browne told him that theft and burglary is what he has been doing over the years, and that he was too old “for this nonsense.”

“Time to retire,” Delpesche quipped.

When it was noted that Hutchins began offending in 1975, this caused the prosecutor to comment that this was nearly 50 years.

In sentencing, the chief magistrate noted that while the value of the items is relatively small, he stole from a business establishment, and “little adds up, most at this time when we have this pandemic in the world.”

She said that businesses cannot afford to lose out at this time, “because of the detrimental effect that will then have on the employees.”

“If everybody comes and takes a little $64 from the business every day, that’s going to add up,” the magistrate noted.

The aggravating features of the offence were, the magistrate stated, that he attempted to conceal the items, and denied it when asked if he had anything to declare. On the other hand, he had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity, and the bottles of shilling oil were recovered.

“With the swiftness with which you took and removed the items, you are fined $400 forthwith, in default two months imprisonment,” the magistrate declared, along with a restoration order for the items.

Hutchins returned to the prisoner’s section where he seemed somber.