A 15-year-old lad was remanded for report and sentencing after he pleaded guilty yesterday before Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle to a charge of being found in a building with intent to commit a felony.
The teen told the magistrate that he needed a bus fare to go home so he used a key he had taken from his employer’s desk to enter the building in order to get the money.
Police prosecutor Denise Griffith said that the Virtual Complainant (VC) Wayne Ford had lost a bunch of keys since October last year and realized that he was missing cash often. His suspicions that the defendant was the culprit increased when the occupants above his place of business told him that they had seen the boy returning to the premises after he had left one night. When he saw the persons he ran away.
Ford decided to lock up the place on April 24 and pretend to go home. He returned to the business place and caught the teen red-handed. The police were subsequently called in and the teen was arrested and charged.
The magistrate asked the young man how many times he had gone into the building without permission and he replied that he did not keep a count.
When asked why no adult had accompanied him to court he said that both his parents are deceased and he lives with his sister.
Ford requested to address the court at this point and said that if there was any possibility the boy was inclined to change his behaviour considering his plight, he would keep him in his employ. However he understood the need for the young man to be punished for his crime and asked the court to be as lenient as possible with him. He further said that he had appealed to the young man’s sister to attend the court but she had refused. The magistrate set May 9 as the date for report and sentencing, since an adult relative had to be present with the underage defendant at court.
