Magistrate: It’s a waste of time sending you to prison

A man who claims he suffers from High Blood Pressure, pleaded guilty to stealing two pipe taps from Gibson’s Building Supplies.{{more}}

Raphael Hutchins, 51, a labourer of Kingstown, was reprimanded and discharged at the Kingstown Magistrates Court on August 3, 2009.

The facts in the matter are that on July 31, 2009, Dick Cordice, a security guard was stationed at the Gibson’s Building Supplies building when he saw another security guard tussling with Hutchins. Cordice went to the aid of the female guard and Hutchins ran. While running, the pipes fell out of his pocket and he was apprehended.

“You have a very deceptive face…you look so angelic and you are a thief,” Senior Magistrate Donald Browne chuckled. While reading out his long list of previous convictions for burglary and theft, Browne described Hutchins’s convictions as laughable, with his last arrest and conviction being for stealing a bottle of cleaning fluid.

Hutchins, who stood in the defendant’s dock with no shoes on, apologized to the court for stealing the items and said that he never ran from the security guard. “If I been only run, she couldn’t have ketch me…I just stand up with the stuff,” Hutchins claimed. He also pleaded with the magistrate to give him a chance because he was suffering from “pressure”.

In responding to Hutchins, Browne said: “It’s a waste of time sending you to prison because I know you will be back. Did you take the pipe to release your pressure?” the magistrate jokingly asked.(KW)