Man caught stealing four chairs at UWI
A visually challenged deportee who was arrested for stealing four metal folding chairs at the University of West Indies told the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court that he had no intention of taking the chairs but was busted when it was revealed that the police actually caught him riding off the campus on his bicycle with the chairs in a black bag.
Donovan Smith, 47, of a Kingston 19 address, was arrested at the institution on February 2, around 8:30 pm, and was charged with simple larceny and breaches of the Campus Securities Act.
Last Friday when Smith appeared in court, he pleaded guilty to both charges, but explained that he was not trying to steal the chairs.
Smith, who disclosed that he had been deported from England for possession of narcotics, told the judge that he was a phone repairman and went on the campus to introduce himself to potential customers.
“I was going to do demonstration with the phones,” he said. “My intention was not to move them,” he insisted.
But the prosecutor at that point told the court that the police had caught Smith on a bicycle with the chairs in a bag.
The judge then asked Smith if he had a drug problem, but he told the court that he only had a drinking problem.
When the judge persisted, Smith said: “I will admit truthfully that I don’t have a drinking problem, I drink excessively but I don’t touch marijuana or cocaine.”
However, a family friend told the court that Smith had a drug problem, to which he later admitted and the judge remanded him for the drug treatment and his case was transferred to the Drugs Court.