A year and change left for car thief to serve

Car thief Joseph Henry St Clair Cadogan has 463 days left to serve out his five-year jail sentence left after High Court judge sentenced him on Friday.

Justice Pamela Beckles sentenced the 62-year-old man, who is recorded as having no fixed place of abode, in Supreme Court No. 5, after a jury had unanimously found him guilty of stealing a motor car worth $41,000 from Chelsea Motors on June 5, 2017.

An Italian visitor had rented the vehicle from the company and went to Drill Hall beach to surf.  He hid the keys and went out on the water but on his return that vehicle had disappeared, the court heard.

The vehicle was recovered on July 4, 2017. But by then, it had been adapted as a taxi and was conveying commuters.

Codagan, who has spent 1,362 days on remand at Dodds in connection with the offence, urged the court to impose a non-custodial sentence in the form of a suspended sentence.

But in handing down her ruling on Friday, Justice Beckles said the offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence would meet the justice of the case. She pointed to the aggravating and mitigating factors.

The judge told Cadogan – who has 11 prior convictions dating back to the 1990s including theft, fraud and burglary – that his crime was an opportunistic one.

“Having seen where the tourist placed his keys you retrieved [it] and drove off with the vehicle. The stolen vehicle was adapted for use as a taxi in which passengers were conveyed to a destination for profit. It was therefore a crime for financial gain,” Justice Beckles told Cadogan who also has previous convictions in Canada.

An aggravating factor, she said, was the fact that the crime was committed against a visitor to Barbados.

She said: “Although in principle punishment for the offence of theft of any crime should be the same whether the victim is a tourist or a resident, the fact is that tourism is a life blood of Barbados’ economy. Tourists should therefore reasonably expect that they would not be subjected to criminal activity and be able to enjoy some level of comfort and security while in Barbados as our guest.

“Crimes against tourists must be deterred since they have the potential to do irreparable harm to Barbados’ image as a tourist destination and ultimately to our economy as a whole,” Beckles added as she pointed to the prevalence of such offences in society; the value of the property taken; and the effect it had on the owners.”

Mitigating in his favour, the judge said, was the fact that the vehicle was recovered and no violence was used in the commission of this offence.

“So having regard to the seriousness of this particular offence and bearing in mind the need to maintain public confidence in the administration of justice as well as such crimes on this country’s economy, the court considers that five years is an appropriate starting point,” she ordered.

The High Court judge then credited Cadogan with the time spent on remand leaving him with 463 days left to serve.