PHILIPSBURG--Marc Junior Richardson (31) received 240 hours of community service on Thursday after the Court found it proven that he had misappropriated a large quantity of furniture which was stolen from a warehouse.
Furniture was stolen from City Furniture’s warehouse between October 27 and 29, 2018. The fencing of the stolen merchandise took place between October 27 and November 15, 2018, the prosecutor said.
Part of the stolen furniture was found in a container which was parked alongside W.J.A. Nisbeth Road. The container was destined for Jamaica. The rest of the furniture was found in Richardson’s house and garage, where it was temporarily stored before being shipped abroad.
Richardson, who was not present for his hearing, had told investigators that he kept the furniture for somebody else, but the Prosecutor’s Office held him for the man in charge of the operation involving merchandise with a total value of US $35,000.
The prosecutor found insufficient proof of theft, but considered fencing proven, as all the equipment was still in the original packaging and unassembled. Also, a witness had told the police that Richardson had offered to sell him a bed and mattress from the inventory.
The prosecution called for 230 hours of community service, or 115 days imprisonment in case of non-compliance.
Lawyer Geert Hatzmann agreed with the prosecutor’s opinion about this case, saying that he could not provide a “brilliant explanation” as to how the furniture ended up in his client’s house and garage. However, he bargained with the Court to reduce the community service to 100 hours.
In sentencing, the judge said that Richardson had failed to tell the truth about why the furniture was stored in his place and what was supposed to happen with it. He did not consider theft proven but took into consideration that this was very “annoying” crime which had cost the company a lot of money, as the largest part of the inventory had been stolen and only partially retrieved.
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/public-service-for-fencing-large-quantity-of-furniture
