Kumar Shaw, a homeless man who admitted to stealing a battery from a minibus, was fined yesterday for the crime after he failed to convince a city magistrate to allow him to do community service as his punishment.
Shaw, who told Senior Magistrate Leron Daly that he lives at the side of the Sharon’s Mall building at Charlotte and King streets, pleaded guilty to the charge that on July 15th, at Regent Road, Georgetown, he stole a $22,000 battery from Kim DeSantos.
When addressing the court, Shaw was very vocal about not wanting to go to jail for the crime and he begged the magistrate to give him community service instead. “I will clean the courtyard and I wouldn’t miss a single day” he insisted.
Police Prosecutor Sanj Singh told the court that on the day in question, DeSantos secured her minibus and on the following day she discovered the battery compartment open. Upon inspection, she noticed the battery was missing. CCTV footage later revealed Shaw stealing the battery. After a search was conducted, Shaw was found, arrested and charged. However, the battery was not recovered.
According to Shaw, he sold the battery to a man but hadn’t been paid for it. “When I went back to him to get it back, he lash me in my face,” he explained to the court.
Shaw was fined $15,000 or an alternative of two months in prison after the magistrate noted that because he did not have a fixed address, there was no guarantee that he would return to the court. DeSantos also said that if the battery had been returned, the charge might have been dropped. A sad Shaw’s last words to the court were, “Me ain’t want to go to jail”.
