Five employees of National Hardware were yesterday granted bail in the sum of $100,000 each when they appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for allegedly stealing a quantity of household appliances from the store.

Walter Williams, Eon Miller, Rowtie Totaram, Vishnu Nauth and Shamir Hassan had all pleaded not guilty to a joint simple-larceny charge when acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson read it to them.

They denied that on December 21, at National Hardware, they stole a quantity of household appliances including bathroom utensils valued over $400,000.

Their lawyers Vic Puran in association with Mohamed Zafar had applied for reasonable bail for them stating that their clients did not steal the items.

Puran said that the items had an incorrect price tag on them so their clients, who were unaware of this, sold the items at the price that was on the tag which happened to be cheaper than the actual price.

The lawyer noted that at the end of the day the store’s profit was less than projected which had then raised the store supervisor’s concern.

However, Prosecutor Stephen Telford told the court that several of the items that were stolen were recovered at Totaram’s home.

The defendants are expected to make another court appearance on December 28.