ROBERT Beckles of Lot 45 Victory Valley, Linden, who is accused of shoplifting from GST #3 Supermarket located at Annandale Market Road, East Coast Demerara, on Monday made his first court appearance at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court.

He was placed on $45,000 bail when he appeared before Magistrate Peter Hugh, charged with simple larceny and causing actual bodily harm. However, in the presence of his attorney, Euclin Gomes, he promised to bring in his female accomplice on Tuesday morning at Vigilance Police Station for questioning.

Beckles and two other accomplices, including a female, on Thursday night attempted to shoplift a tin of baby formula (milk) and two jars of marmite but the alert proprietor thwarted their move.

The Chinese national managed to put up a fight with the group and snatched the bag containing the items as the trio was browsing the aisles of the supermarket. Mace was sprayed in the businessman’s wife face and in the supermarket which had customers, but the man pursued the group and they abandoned the car they arrived in. The police was summoned and Beckles was picked up at about 20:50hrs on Thursday night while he was walking aimlessly in Annandale.

He reportedly told cops he was heading to Eastville, the neighbouring village. A search of his person unearthed the keys to the motorcar which the bandits abandoned on the Annandale Public Road.
Beckles claimed he and the others rented the car from a dealer in the city and he had the keys stashed in his boots. The Guyana Chronicle was told that police carried out a search of the car and found other items in it which included gold-plated watches, sunglasses and a ladies handbag containing baby milk products and a high-end phonics game.

At about 18:15hrs last Thursday, several customers were inside the supermarket shopping when a woman and two men entered and they proceeded to browse through the aisles. It was when a tin of baby milk (Enfagrow) fell out from under the woman’s dress in the supermarket that the Chinese proprietor became suspicious and went into his office to review the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) where he saw what they were doing.