Man sent for drug treatment

A SELF-CONFESSED drug addict admitted to a magistrate yesterday that he uses his old age pension to buy drugs. As a result of the habit, he said, his wife and children no longer speak to him.

Lennox Rampersad, 62, appeared in the San Fernando magistrates’ court charged with breaking into San Fernando Boys Roman Catholic School last week Monday. He stole a tablet and $278 in cash from the office. Before senior magistrate Jo-Anne Connor, Rampersad pleaded guilty.

Police prosecutor Cleyon Seedan, said that staff member Donna Solomon secured the school’s office and returned the following day to see a glass door broken. PC Raghunanan of the San Fernando CID investigated and arrested Rampersad on Monday. Rampersad told Connor that he lives as a squatter at Cross Crossing, San Fernando. Connor reminded Rampersad that he was once charged with warehouse breaking, served six months jail for possession of a device for smoking cocaine, then another $1,800 for a similar offence.

Connor then reminded Rampersad that he was jailed for three months for larceny, then three years hard labour for larceny of fixtures. The magistrate, continuing with Rampersad’s previous record, told him that he did another three-year jail term for larceny and six months for having a device. His latest conviction before yesterday, she added, was three years jail by Justice Gillian Lucky for sacrilege. Connor referred Rampersad to the drug treatment court and granted him $20,000 bail with a surety. He is to return before her on October 15.