Sureties warned to be sure they can meet bail payment if accused breach conditions

Sureties for five alleged copper cable thieves have been warned to take the responsibility of posting bail very seriously.

In fact after signaling their intention to sign $20 000 on behalf of each accused Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes warned the sureites “not to come crying” to the court if they are ordered to pay the sum if any of the men were to breach the bail conditions.

“Don’t come in here crying before me. If wunna cry wunna loss. It will have no impact on me. If wunna don’t know that these men ain’t reporting to the police station or sticking to their curfew wunna loss again. So think long and hard before wunna get up here and swear. If wunna ain’t willing to give up $20 000 because you can’t deal with them, don’t come and cry.

“Those are the realities. In Magistrates’ Court we have been too slack. We done with all that slackness, we are tightening up . . . If any of wunna come to sign bail, be serious about signing bail or don’t sign because no crying is going to deal with it,” Weekes stated.

He made the comments as he dealt with the matter in which Wayne Ricardo Forde, 47, a truck driver from The Woods, Howells Cross Road, St Michael; Wayne Sylvester Dacosta Harewood, 47, an electrician from Tichbourne, Howells Cross Roads, St Michael; Jaranda Zabdiel Ronaldo Herbert, 20, from Back Ivy, St Michael; Omar Ryan Grannum, 35, from Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael and Kerry Anderson Grant, 41, of Pondside, Nelson Street, St Michael are jointly charged with stealing 9,323 pounds of copper cable valued at $79 062.20 belonging to Flow Barbados between October 13 and 14.

Forde, Harewood, Herbert, and Grannum are also facing separate individual charges of providing secondhand metals dealer B’s Recycling with a false statement of ownership saying that each man was the legal owner of copper and lawfully entitled to trade said metal. Those four offences are alleged to have been committed on October 14.

The accused were not required to plead to the indictable charges before the Chief Magistrate when they made their first appearances in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court.

Along with securing the bail, the men were also placed on a curfew and told to report to a police station every Saturday before 1 p.m.

Forde has been placed on a 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and must report to the District ‘A’ Police Station. He is represented by attorney Justin Leacock. Harewood, who has Simon Clarke as his attorney, is on the same daily curfew. Herbert, whose defence counsel are Michael Lashley Q.C. and Sade Harris, has been placed on a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew along with Grannum, who is unpresented by legal counsel.

Grant was placed on a 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and will report to Central Police Station.

The men will reappear in court on April 27, 2022.