Resident magistrate Vaughn Facey is to decide on November 25, what sentence he will impose on a 22-year-old man, who is before the court for abstracting electricity from the Jamaica Public Service Company.
Carlye Moulton of Mount Edgecombe in Runaway Bay, St Ann, appeared before RM Facey in the St. Ann’s Bay Resident Magistrates court on Monday, September 29, charged for illegally abstracting electricity.
RM Facey has ordered a social enquiry report and has told the accused, Moulton, that he will decide what he will do with him based on the report. The RM also instructed the clerk of court to ascertain from JPS, the period of time the premises had been out of electricity, before the theft was discovered by the company.
The accused told the court that he was not guilty of abstracting electricity. He said he shared the premises with his mother but also said she was not the one who made the illegal connection to JPS line. When asked by the magistrate if his mother should have been charged, the accused told the court that it was not his mother who “throw up the line.”
After answering several questions from the magistrate, Moulton admitted to the court that he was aware of the illegal connection.
“What you do, Sir, affects all of us,” RM Facey told the accused, after warning him about the effects electricity theft is having on the company and other customers. “Don’t feel anyway, is not you alone doing it … but that doesn’t mean that it is right,” the magistrate added.
The accused was also unable to tell the court for how long the premises was illegally connected to JPS. He instead told the court that he was rarely at home.
The matter will again be mentioned on November 25 when Moulton is to be sentenced.
