… jailed for 2 years
“I was under the influence of alcohol when I took the vehicle. I was waiting on the park for a bus when I saw the key in the car and decided to drive home.”
Those were the words 32-year-old Anthony Cooper uttered to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan when he appeared in that Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Cooper pleaded guilty to the charge which stated, that on October 10, 2021, at Stabroek Market, Georgetown, he stole a Toyota Axio motorcar valued at $3.5 million, property of Onika Ashanti Bobb.
Facts presented by the court prosecutor stated that, on the day in question, the woman parked her vehicle, forgot the keys in the driver’s side door, and went vending. Upon her return, she observed her car missing, and she made a report at the Brickdam Police Station. The Police, after reviewing Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage from the area, saw a man driving away with the car.
Days later, Bobb’s husband saw someone driving the car on the East Bank Demerara public road, and he drove his vehicle into the car, causing that driver to stop. He then confronted the man who was driving his wife’s car.
The court heard that Bobb’s husband took Cooper to the Brickdam Police Station.
Meanwhile, Cooper apologised for stealing the woman’s car. He told the Chief Magistrate that he was willing to compensate the woman for the time he had the car.In the end, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
