WESTERN BUREAU – Westmoreland police constable, Ranar Lambert, 21, was offered bail in the sum of $200,000 when he appeared before the Savanna-la-Mar Resident Magistrate’s Court on a charge of simple larceny this week.

The young cop was slapped with the larceny charge, in accordance with a ruling from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Wednesday.

On January 16, a man with $12,000 in his wallet reportedly boarded a taxi at Darliston in the parish. The taxi was bound for Savanna-la-Mar and on nearing his destination, the man reportedly paid his fare from one of the $1,000 notes that made up the $12,000.

Sometime later, the taxi operator, who was on his way back to Darliston, is alleged to have seen one of his colleagues whose car was involved in an accident. He gave the colleague his vehicle to visit the nearby police station to report the accident.

The colleague subsequently picked up two uniformed policemen to take them to the accident scene. During the journey, Constable Lambert – one of the cops in the car – allegedly found the wallet and handed it to his colleague. His colleague reportedly remarked that the wallet contained no money.

On reaching the scene of the accident, the man, who had earlier boarded the vehicle, turned up and told the cops that he had lost his wallet in the car. The wallet was handed to him and he discovered that the money was missing.

He and the two policemen were then taken to the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station where a senior officer conducted a search of their persons. The search turned up $13,000 inside one of constable Lambert’s pockets. When he was asked where he had obtained the money, he reportedly told the senior officer that he had got it from an ATM machine, but said that he could not remember which one.

He was subsequently taken into custody and a case file was prepared and submitted to the DPP for a ruling. Lambert is now booked to return to court on March 1, when his case will again be mentioned.