KINGSTON, Jamaica — A 48-year-old man was offered bail in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday as the judge queried whether the crown even had a case to hold him.

When his case was called up, the man’s attorney rose before Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell to seek bail for his client, who had been in lockup for almost a month.

Upon hearing the details of the case in which the man was alleged to have stolen a motorbike, the judge immediately expressed concern that there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime.

The prosecution indicated that the man had been caught on video parking a bus he was known to drive beside the stolen bike.

The video then showed the bus being moved, and the bike went missing. The man was not captured on camera taking the bike or driving the bus away from the scene.

His attorney indicated that he had video footage of the man being in a different area at the time the motorbike was said to have gone missing.

Police say when the man was questioned under caution, he told them, “Yow mi can work out something enuh, you nuh haffi do this. Mi can make a call and make them bring back the bike.”

Burrell maintained that this was not an admission of guilt and said, “It doesn’t seem like this man should be before the court to me.”

When the judge queried why he had not been offered station bail, the man’s attorney rose and explained that he had been told bail had not been offered in the matter because of the prevalence of such offences.

Burrell granted his bail and also afforded the crown a date for case management on January 15, but said, “Even if you can put the bike in the bus, you have to put him around the wheel, then you [would] have a case…it doesn’t sound like you have a case to me.”

— Dana Malcolm