Habitual crop thief ordered to fork out $40 compensation

A produce thief from Mesopotamia has struck again, stealing 16 holes of dasheen and one bunch of bananas from a 75-year-old farmer.

Reynold ‘Barp’ Ledger, 43, of Glenside was brought to the Serious Offences Court on Wednesday, February 17, for the theft of $25 worth of dasheen and a $15 bunch of bananas, together amounting to $40, belonging to Anetta Hull of Cane End.
Hull owns a plot of land in Glenside where she plants various crops. After finishing

her work, the older woman left her land with everything intact at 11:45 am on Friday, February 12. The following Tuesday, February 16, at about 4 pm, she returned and discovered the 16 holes of dasheen uprooted, and one bunch of bananas missing.

The matter was reported to the police, and investigations carried out. One Justin Timothy handed Ledger over to the police, and he was charged.

Ledger did not have anything to say about the theft when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne.

The court decided to order compensation of $40 to Hull, to be paid forthwith, with a default of one month in prison.

Further, Ledger was bonded for six months in the sum of $900 with a default prison sentence of six months should he breach the terms of this bond.

The magistrate commented that this was Ledger’s modus operandi, “Every conviction here is for stealing some kinda produce! Eddoes, chive, plantain – you name it.”

Browne said that it can’t be that the farmer works hard in the hot sun, sweating, and “you just coming in and reaping them here so.”

“…Every conviction, and it’s not no little bit either, come on,” she noted.

Ledger was later observed admitting to the police that he did not have the $40 compensation. However, it is said that he was able to pay the sum after another individual stepped in to assist.