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A 52-year-old woman pleaded guilty to stealing a 250-gallon water storage tank from a national park.

Celia Lynes stole the tank from Edmund Spencer Moxey Youth and Community Center on September 11th.  Lynes initially denied the act while her companion 45-year-old Kevin Cooper pleaded guilty, fined $1500, and placed on probation for two years.

But after seven weeks at the Bahamas Department of Corrections, Lynes pleaded guilty to the offense.

The court heard that Lynes and Cooper arrived at the park in a red Passo, parked, and walked to the western side of the facility. They detached the tank and strapped it to the roof of their vehicle, then drove off.

An employee observing the act called the police and officers were soon hot on their heels. The suspects’ vehicle was stopped and they were arrested.

Lynes was given two years probation and given 9 months in jail if she failed to be of good behavior.

Two women claiming to be bargain hunters, were sentenced to one year probation, after it was discovered the  air conditioning units they purchased, were stolen.

Nadia Oliver and Lurline Ferguson said they were looking to buy air conditioning units at a lower price.

They stood before Magistrate Samuel Mckinney, and pleaded guilty to receiving the stolen properties valued at $900.

Oliver and Ferguson said they each paid $300 for the units, to  Aaron Johnson, Darrio Wilson and Antwoyne Miller whom police, upon their arrest, found two more air conditioning units in their vehicle.

The men then took police to Oliver and Ferguson for the units they had sold to the women, which were the property of Keithwood Stubbs.

Magistrate Mckinney fined the three men: Johnson and Miller were fined $1800 as this was their second conviction and Wilson was fined $1000 because it was his first conviction.

The Family Court is expecting major upgrades as clients will make virtual payments and collect monies at various local outlets using mobile devices.

Chief Justice Brian Moree said, “Persons will be able to make payments to the Family Court, using their mobile devices, using their telephones, their Ipads, computers.

“People will be able to collect the monies at a number of outlets, vendors, supermarkets, pharmacies, again using  mobile devices. So you are not going to have to come into the Magistrate Court at all,” Moree promised.

He said this will substantially change the way business is conducted at the court while eliminating in-person services in a COVID era.

“We hope it will provide a much higher level of service,” Moree said.

The contract has been awarded to a company and a signing company is expected soon.

Earlier in the year,  during the opening of the legal year, Moree criticized the state of the court system, alluding to major changes he believed were necessary to modernize the justice system.  

 “The need for reform and modernization of our Court System is now impatient of debate,” he said.

“That matter has been settled and what is needed is bold initiatives without, what has been described as, the dead hand of tradition holding back radical and fundamental change.” 

An employee of  car parts store told a magistrate that he stole a patron’s pouch to pay for an abortion for his girlfriend.

The nineteen-year-old told Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson Pratt that his girlfriend was pregnant and needed the money to abort the pregnancy.

Karon Wallace stole the pouch on July 30th, which contained $475, two cell phones and an internet box, after which he hid in bushes near his workplace.

However, when he returned for the pouch in the bushes, it was  missing.

The woman patron alerted police to the incident, which led to the arrest of Wallace.

Wallace admitted his mistake and Ferguson Pratt granted him a second chance with an absolute discharge if he stays out of trouble.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes cautioned two accused cousins against ‘shacking up.’

The two cousins Thorne Sampson and Terez Johnson of Gambier Village were charged on Tuesday with violations of the weekend lockdown orders.

One of the pair reportedly rented an AirBnB because his girlfriend “wanted to do something nice for the weekend”, but he along with his cousin left shortly after 1 am after getting into an intense argument with his girlfriend.

Both Sampson and Johnson pleaded guilty to the charge of violation of orders and was strongly chastised by the Deputy Magistrate.

Forbes said, “The purpose of the lockdown isn’t to shack-up. The purpose of the lockdown is to try to separate persons.”

Forbes admonished the men to make better decisions.

“There are two heads on a male,” he continued. “Use the one on your shoulders.”

Sampson rationalized his reason for breaching the violation, “I rather did take my chances with the police,” he said, when explaining why he decided to leave at 1am and said his phone was broken which prevented him from calling 311.

The men were fined $500 or three months in prison.