WESTERN BUREAU:
"I HOPE you fully appreciate the shame and disgrace you have brought down on yourself and your family," Resident Magistrate Paulette Williams told a young woman from Montego Bay as she handed down sentence last week.
Alicia Munro, 21, was sentenced to 12 months at hard labour suspended for three years and was also fined $100,000 or six months after she pleaded guilty to uttering forged cheques, forging cheques and obtaining money by false pretence last Thursday.
The RM commented that Munro's father, who was present in court, seemed more contrite than the daughter. Munro had pleaded guilty to stealing $13,000 when she first appeared on March 28 but the Clerk of the Court, Mrs. Natalie Messado Brown, told the court on Thursday that the charges were erroneous. She said that Munro should have been pleaded to stealing 13 cheques totalling $55,000. The amount actually stolen was $87,000.
The court also heard that at least one cheque for $20,000 was made out to a Victor Mitchell which was a loan to invest in a partner scheme. Munro had told the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court that she had stolen her employers' money to finance her return to school to complete her education. Attorney-at-law Morrell Beckford, who appeared on behalf of Munro, had told the court that his client had used some of the money to purchase uniform to wear to work.
The allegations were that on March 23, the owner/operator of the Gold Plus In-bond Store, to which Munro had been employed for three and a half months, received his statements regarding his accounts from the Sam Sharpe Square branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia. It was discovered that a number of cheque leaves and stubs were missing.
Further checks revealed that the missing cheques had been stolen, endorsed and cashed by the accused. She was subsequently arrested and charged.
The RM said that she did not know if Munro, who had begun teachers college, should be allowed in a classroom to mold the minds of youngsters after she had proved to be a dishonest person. The RM also said Munro had said she was hoping to use the money to go back to school but could not account for it now and it seemed the money had "withered away".
Attorney Beckford described the incident as "an isolated act of folly driven by desperation" as his client could not visualise her dreams of resuming her education on the meagre sums of money she was earning at the time. Mr. Beckford said a social report that was ordered by the court, painted a picture of a person who had demonstrated focus and determination. He said she was not satisfied with the level of education that she was exposed to and sought to better herself by attending the Sam Sharpe Teachers College where she got five passes in external examinations.
He said she had started the teachers training course but had dropped out after completing one year after her mother became ill and was hospitalised in 1999. He added that despite an application for a student loan being denied, she still made efforts to go back to school but her lack of funds prevented her.
