St Barnabas man steals drill over ‘unpaid job’

Upset that he had not been paid the $80 owed to him for completing a job, Paul Garfield Dear decided to take matters into his own hands and steal a $239 drill from a hardware store’s owner, the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court heard Wednesday.

But Dear, of 7th Avenue, St Barnabas, St Michael, instead found himself pleading guilty to stealing the machine from Builders Value Mart Limited on August 13.

Prosecutor Sergeant Victoria Taitt told the court that Dear entered the business from the Reed Street entrance that morning in a grey shirt and black pants. An employee reported that she saw a man in the power tool aisle acting suspiciously.

When a check was made, an empty drill box was found.

Dear was stopped at the cashier and asked to declare what was in the plastic bag he was carrying.

He told the employee it was his drill which he had brought into the store.

But a bulge was noticed in his waist and when he was searched the power tool was found.

Taitt revealed that Dear was known to the court but his last conviction was in 1994.

Dear told Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes that he was upset because he was owed $80 for work he had done and was continually being given the runaround.

“The lady had some change for me and she was turning me round,” said Dear. “She tell me to come Thursday and then she tell me to come Friday but when I went Friday she tell me to come back on Monday.”

When he said he was unsure if the woman who owed him was the owner of the business, Chief Magistrate Weekes asked him why he did not enquire as to who the owner was.

When asked what he had planned to do with the drill, Dear said he would have taken it home.

“So you were owed $80 and you were going to take home a drill that worth $239?” the Chief Magistrate asked him, to which he replied, “yes”.

Weekes then placed him on a bond to keep the peace for three months. If that bond is breached he will have to pay $750 forthwith or he will spend 30 days in prison.