The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN Eleuthera man who admitted walking into a woman’s unlocked house and stealing $4,000 worth of her personal belongings was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison.

Reginald Gibson, 56, was charged with housebreaking and stealing after he unlawfully entered his employer’s Harbour Island residence and stole her MacBook laptop and a backpack that was filled with medication on January 30.

He admitted the offences when he appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes.

The court heard the complainant told police when she returned home that day, she realised her residence had been broken into and some of her belongings were missing. She then filed an official report and requested police action. Officers investigating her complaint were able to speak with the woman’s neighbours, who told them they had seen Gibson in the area earlier that day acting in a suspicious manner. The defendant, who was previously known to police, was arrested a short time later. When he was interviewed in custody, he admitted stealing the items and later took officers to the place where he had stashed the stolen goods.

Yesterday, Gibson told the magistrate he used to do landscaping for the complainant. He claimed he walked into her house because it wasn’t locked and said he decided to steal the laptop and backpack because his house recently burned down and he did not have any money. He admitted the complainant never gave him permission to enter her house.

After listening to his explanation, Magistrate Forbes accepted Gibson’s guilty plea and sentenced him to six months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. He told the defendant that the maximum penalty for the offence he committed was five years, but he considered the fact that Gibson had cooperated with the investigation from the onset and was forthright in admitting his guilt.