Prosecutor proposes time for top-up machine theft

A state attorney believes that a St Peter man who stole a top up machine and cash belonging to a telecommunications company over six years ago should spend time behind bars for the crime.

However, in his submissions on sentencing Anderson Glenroy Gibbons, of Church Street, Speightstown told Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell that the sentence is “up to you ma’am”.

Crown Counsel Kevin Forde and the convicted man made the submissions on sentencing before the No. 4 Supreme Court on Wednesday. However, Gibbons will have to wait until June 3 to know his fate.

Gibbons had previously admitted that he and another person had stolen the $24 000 machine and $1 230 cash belonging to Cable and Wireless Limited between July 15 and 16, 2015.

“I beg the court for leniency. I was on cocaine and my mother passed away. Yes I did wrong and I beg for the court’s mercy,” Gibson, who is known to the court, pleaded.

His criminal record revealed that he has ten prior convictions including one for handling stolen property; two for possession of apparatus for the misuse of illegal drugs; one for theft; four for burglary and one for robbery.

Forde, in his submissions, told the High Court Judge that the offence required a custodial sentence being imposed.

He pointed to several aggravating factors of the crime among them the seriousness of the offence, the prevalence of such offences in society; the value of the items; the impact the crime had on the business and the fact that it was “premeditated and deliberate”.

Mitigating, he said, was Gibbons’ guilty plea but going against him was the fact that he had ten prior convictions the majority of which were for similar offences. He said the convict was also assessed at being at a high risk of re-offending.

The prosecutor said a starting sentence of two years in prison should be imposed. He further submitted that given that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, the starting point should be adjusted upwards by three years, taking it to five years.

However, Forde said that Gibbons should be credited with the one third discount for his guilty plea and for the time that he had spent on remand at Dodds.