Stolen street lamps case discontinued

After a year and a half of adjournments, the matter pertaining to five street lamps belonging to VINLEC, which went missing at Gibson Corner, was discontinued at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, January 25, 2010.{{more}}

After it was heard that one of the two men charged with theft of the lamps had absconded and was said to be in Dominica, the court had to come to a decision in the matter.

Keegan Michael, of Spring Village, and Arthur Thompson, of Chateaubelair, were jointly charged on September 7, 2009, with stealing five 50 watt street lamps from the St Vincent Electrical Services Ltd (VINLEC), valued at $2,949.79.

Chief Executive Officer of VINLEC, Thornley Myers, who was present in court on Tuesday, was called to the dock and asked if he wanted to pursue the matter, although the lights had been returned.

Mayers said he realised the Court has been carrying on the matter for quite sometime and he did not want to take up too much of its time.

He also noted that it was not his intention to slight the hard work of the police over the period.

Stating that there are over 7,700 street lamps in the country, Mayers said he could not fathom why people would want to steal street lamps.

It was alleged that on August 17, 2009, both accused, former employees of Ruddy’s Electrical Contracting Ltd, took a truck bearing the logo of Ruddy’s Electrical Contracting Ltd. from their workplace without the consent of the owner of the company, Rudy Daize, and drove into the Gibson Corner neighbourhood.

While there, the men are alleged to have informed one resident that they were carrying out maintenance work on the lamps.

However, both VINLEC nor Ruddy’s, who are sub-contractors of VINLEC, denied authorizing the removal of the lights.

The men were represented by Counsel Arthur Williams and Ronald Marks.(KW)