Jail for stealing magistrate’s car parts

FOR stealing $16,000 in car parts from a magistrate, Ronnie Mohammed was sent to jail for two years with hard labour.

Mohammed, 58, of Springvale, San Fernando, pleaded guilty yesterday before San Fernando Magistrate Natalie Diop. With 36 previous convictions and 52 matters listed on his criminal record, Mohammed told Diop he stopped stealing “a long time now.”

The items belonged to Couva-based magistrate Siumongal Ramsaran. He was not in the court yesterday.

Court prosecutor PC Ramdath Phillip said that Ramsaran last saw the parts in the yard of his San Fernando home on June 24. The following day, he realised the items were gone and made a report to San Fernando police.

PC Kendon Atkinson investigated and arrested Mohammed on the road with most of the items in a crocus bag.

Yesterday, Mohammed told Diop that he was walking along the street when he saw “this old break-down vehicle in a yard.” The vehicle was falling apart, he said. Referring to himself as a scavenger, he said he took the parts which he cleaned with the intention of selling them as scrap iron.

“I don’t thief again your honour. I was wrong to walk in the man’s yard. This is how I make my livelihood. I started a little garden and I have some ochroes and melongene.”

The magistrate asked how he would feel if someone steals from his garden. He responded, “If a man goes and thief my produce, he had to be very hungry.”