A 22-year-old man who bought a stolen phone chip was placed on probation for one year.
Police arrested Carlos Joseph after they found him with an Aliv phone chip from a cell phone that had been stolen sometime in November. He pleaded guilty to one count of dishonestly receiving during a hearing before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
The court was told that the complainant had told police that an unknown person had broken into his car and stolen his $200 Alcatel cell phone around 2.50pm on November 21.
The prosecution said an investigation was launched and the officers conducting the inquiries were able to trace the SIM card back to Joseph. He was subsequently arrested and taken to a nearby police station. In an interview with officers there, he said he bought the SIM card “off the street”.
Joseph told the magistrate a man had approached him and offered to sell him the chip at a cheap rate.
In response, Magistrate McKinney told the accused it would have been safer to purchase a SIM card from a store. He insisted receiving stolen goods was just as bad as stealing them and said as an adult, Joseph should have known the difference between right and wrong.
He placed the accused on probation for 12 months and ordered him to be of good behaviour.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.