JULIAN Harlequin (no address given) was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment yesterday, for stealing a Blackberry cell phone. Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton imposed the custodial punishment on him after he pleaded guilty to the May 28 theft of the $38,000 instrument, belonging to Waini Griffith.
Police Corporal Simone Payne, prosecuting, said the virtual complainant was speaking on her phone while awaiting transport at the route 42 minibus park and the thief snatched it and ran.
The prosecutor said an alarm was raised and Harlequin was apprehended by two policemen, who searched him and recovered the instrument in his pants pocket.
The convict claimed he and the virtual complainant had a relationship and he bought the phone for her but, that day, she received a call from another man and he became upset and took it away.
The magistrate asked him if he is aware that the woman gave a statement to the police and told him not because she is absent he can lie to the court.
When the magistrate read the virtual complainant’s statement, it contained no indication that the defendant was known to her.
The sentence of imprisonment was inflicted because the court found him lying and he had been previously convicted in one of two similar cases.