A young man who pleaded guilty to stealing EC$176,200 from his mother to buy a passenger van was granted bail on Monday, after a magistrate offered him a “second chance” for a clean criminal record by entering a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Jemor Jack, 21 of Arnos Vale appeared at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court before Senior Magistrate Colin John, where he pleaded guilty to all three counts of theft against Rocita Jack of Park Hill.

Jemor was charged that between July 1 and August 1, 2023 at Kingstown stole EC$48,200 in cash; he was charged that between the between the August 1 and 31, 2023, he stole EC$38,000 in cash, and for the third theft, which was committed between September 1 and 30, 2023, he stole EC$$90,000 in cash.

The facts which were read by PC 196 Constantine stated that Rocita was a sailor, but her career came to an end due to an accident at work, which prohibited her from performing her duties. She then opened an account at Republic Bank where she received her financial benefits.

Her son Jemor was given an ATM card to the account and she signed up for the online banking service. She had the passcode for the online banking service on a piece of paper which she placed in a handbag. At the time, Rocita was living with her two children, including Jemor.

On Saturday, October 7 2023, Rocita went to the ATM and removed EC$300 from her account. She collected the receipt and placed it in her bag without checking the balance on her receipt.

The next day around 6 am, Rocita was searching through some documents and found the receipt from her ATM transaction the day before. She read it and realised that a large portion of her money was missing from her account and as a result, she went to Republic Bank to enquire of the missing money and was informed that EC$176,200 had been transferred from her account between July 2 and September 21, 2023.

Rocita had no knowledge of those transactions, and as a result, she reported the matter to the police at the Criminal Investigations Department(CID) where Corporal 540 Sam entertained her report and recorded a statement from her. An investigation was then conducted. The investigation led to Rocita’s son Jemor. The next day, Corporal Sam met with Jemor at the Stubbs Police Station, identified himself as a police officer and informed Jemor of his investigations.

Corporal Sam told Jemor that he was a suspect in the investigation and cautioned him. Jemor admitted to taking the money and said that he purchased a passenger van. The van is currently in police custody. Jemor was cautioned some days after, and gave his version of the matter. He was arrested and charged for the offence of theft.

Jemor has no antecedents before the court.

Rocita told the court that she is willing to accept compensation from her son.

When the Senior Magistrate asked Jemor what he had to say in response to the facts that were read, he told the court that he had already agreed with his mother that all rights to the van will be given to her so she can make back the money which he had stolen.

“I think the first thing you need to do…is to apologise to your mother,” John told him.

“Mommy, I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I wasn’t thinking straight…” Jemor said.

John asked him why he didn’t ask his mother for assistance in buying a van.

“Um, as I said before I wasn’t thinking straight…”

Rocita expressed how disheartening it is that her son committed such an offence against her.

“I don’t think that this is something he should have done [to] me as his mother,” adding that if her son can do this to her, then it shows that he has the potential to do something similar to someone else.

The Senior Magistrate told Prosecutor Corlene Samuel that while they are executioners of the law, he believes that they should assist people in any way they can, and so he would enter a not guilty plea on Jemor’s behalf so he could maintain his clean police record.

“… He can’t say well he didn’t get a second chance to redeem himself.”

The Senior Magistrate granted Jemor bail in the sum of $2,000 with one surety. The matter is adjourned to Friday of this week.