(left) Former constable Herman Lawrence Pinder going to court yesterday charged with stealing phones from the BTC JEFT branch. (Photos: Torrell Glinton) (right) Former constables Ricardo Henry Bain heads to court to be charged with stealing phone from the BTC JFK branch.
Two (now former) police constables pleaded guilty in a Magistrates' Court to stealing three Samsung Galaxy J1 phones after responding to a break-in at the Bahamas Telecommunication Company's (BTC) John F. Kennedy branch last Friday.
Constable Ricardo Henry Bain, 44, and Constable Herman Lawrence Pinder, 31, entered guilty pleas before Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes.
Forbes said he was lost for words that the officers, whom he noted have a responsibility to protect the Bahamian people, could find themselves before the courts.
"I cannot quite grasp how two officers attending an alleged break-in made the decision to, instead of investigate the alleged break-in, help themselves to merchandise in the store and enrich themselves," Forbes said. "And here [you] are before the court, not as witnesses in a criminal matter, but as defendants. And for what; $435, for cell phones."
Forbes said the officers ought to have known better. He also said Bain and Pinder, through their actions, were facilitating a schism within society for people not to trust the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF).
Police Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent Ercell Dorsett said the officers responded to an alarm being activated at the BTC store at the RND Plaza on John F. Kennedy Drive and discovered there was a break-in. Surveillance footage from the store showed the officers removing three cell phones, Dorsett said.
According to the prosecutor, investigators confronted the constables about the theft after reviewing the footage, but the constables denied the allegations. However, after they were shown the surveillance footage, Dorsett said Bain and Pinder admitted the crime to investigators and handed over the phones to the police.
Dorsett said Pinder stole two cell phones, while Bain took the other. When Forbes asked the constables whether those were the facts, both men concurred. Devard Francis of LaRoda Francis & Co. represented Pinder.
Francis begged the court for a non-custodial sentence, noting that Pinder did not waste the court's time and at the first opportunity pleaded guilty. Francis said Pinder was "remorseful and contrite", had no previous convictions and is the breadwinner of his household. The defense attorney said he was representing the constable with a heavy heart, having known Pinder for many years. He said they attend the same church.
Making the point that Pinder has served his country, Francis also said Pinder was previously shot in the line of duty and had to be hospitalized. He added that the constables had already suffered the "hallmarks of a conviction" and asked that the men be given a second chance.
The defense lawyer for Bain made a similar argument and also asked the court for lenience. Forbes fined Pinder and Bain $3,000 each and ordered that they pay the fine in full by Friday or face 18 months in prison. Both constables were also discharged from the RBPF yesterday.
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