Inside job

A known burglar’s 20th conviction today has landed him in Dodds prison for two years.

The sentence was handed down to Robert Omar Harris by Magistrate Manila Renee when he appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court at Cane Garden, St Thomas.

Harris, 45, of Block 1A, St Matthias, Christ Church, admitted to stealing a flash drive valued $60 belonging to Sheena Griffith between September 13 and 24, 2022, as well as entering Griffith’s residence as a trespasser and stealing a bathroom mat, a set of pots and pans, a dispenser set, a set of spoons and forks, two bags and one set of fabric on September 24, 2022. The items had a total value of $1 085.

In giving the facts, Sergeant Kenmore Phillips said the complainant paid Harris to clean her car on September 13.

When he was finished, he returned the keys to her. However, days later, the complainant realised that the flash drive that she kept in her car was missing and she reported the matter to police.

With respect to the burglary, the prosecutor said on the mentioned date, around 4 a.m., the complainant heard her dog barking but paid no attention.

Around 6 a.m., she left home to go exercise on the beach. However, on her way there, she was stopped by a neighbour who told her that a man had broken into her house and pointed out Harris who was in the area riding a bicycle.

The complainant identified him as the man who had washed her car on a previous occasion.

When asked by the Magistrate if he had anything to say, Harris told her that he had a drug problem.

“Right now, I using cocaine real heavy, I taking pills and I using needles. I need some help with this problem, even if I have to go to the Mental [Psychiatric Hospital],” he told the court.

When the Magistrate checked Harris’ conviction card, it showed he had 19 previous convictions, including for theft and burglary. He had also served prison terms for those offences.

“Based on your history, only a term of imprisonment will do,” Magistrate Renee told him, even as she lauded him for pleading guilty at the earliest occasion and not wasting the court’s time.