Despite returning an air- conditioner condenser after being caught removing it from a business, a scrap iron dealer was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour.
Before sentencing Kamal Ramsundar, 35, Senior Magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine said the court was happy to see that he pleaded guilty to the charge of larceny and owned up to his crime.
However, she chided Ramsundar, telling him: “You should be able to see people’s property and leave it alone.”
The fact that he had eight other convictions for larceny, marijuana and cocaine did not work in favour of the father of two.
Court prosecutor Cleyon Seedan told the First San Fernando Court yesterday that around noon on October 3, Marissa Nurse was at her workplace, Entrepreneurs General Company Ltd along Coffee Street, San Fernando when she last saw the company’s 24,000 BTU Peake Air Conditioner condenser on the compound. Around 1.40 pm, she heard a noise outside the building and on checking, she saw Ramsundar leaving the compound with the condenser, which was valued at $5,000.
She contacted the San Fernando CID and when PC Dhoray and other officers arrived at the business, Nurse pointed to Ramsundar and said, “Officer, that is the man I saw taking the air condition condenser.” When Dhoray confronted Ramsundar with the allegation, he responded, “Yes boss, I really take it to sell the copper wire from it.”
Ramsundar and the condenser were taken back to the San Fernando CID where the charge was laid.
He told the court that he was picking up galvanise and old machines left on the roadside on October 3. He said although he put the condenser in his van, he returned it after being confronted by Nurse.
But Antoine said the condenser was on someone’s property when he removed it. She told him that it could have been his cocaine use which caused him to commit crimes.
Source Guardian