By AZARD ALI Thursday, January 3 2013

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COMMENDED: PC Terrence Rahim, commended yesterday by a San Fernando Magistrate for arresting a man who was later jailed for 165 months for six counts ...

DESCRIBING him as a “terrorist thief”, a San Fernando magistrate yesterday sent a man to prison for 165 months after the accused appeared in court charged for breaking and entering the homes of several persons.

Narvin Baboolal, 34, of Pranz Gardens, Claxton Bay, even stole the surveillance camera which recorded him conducting his thievery. To all six counts of breaking and entering, Baboolal pleaded guilty before Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington.

The magistrate told Baboolal that he was very lucky that this country was not Sudan or followed that African nation’s version of Islam where he could have had his hands cut off for such offences. “But unfortunately, I have no such power to order your extradition,” Wellington told Baboolal.

Sudan practises a version of Islam in which certain crimes, including theft, are punishable by such acts as cutting off of hands, cutting off other body parts and even death. Wellington commended Constable Terrence Rahim of San Fernando CID, for ridding the Gasparillo community of a menace in the person of Baboolal.

Court prosecutor Constable Cleon Seedan told the court that on April 17, at about 1 pm, Baboolal broke into a house in Gasparillo where he stole $32,960 worth of jewelry, food items and clothes. On May 5, at 10.30 pm, he stole $30,060 worth of household and personal items including cutlery, plates, cups and cologne. Asked why he committed such acts, Baboolal told Wellington he did not have any wares at his home, so he helped himself to somebody else’s belongings.

Another charge was that at 6 pm on May 1, 2012 at Precision Engineering, Guaracara/Tabaquite Road, Baboolal stole computers worth $38,150. On May 6, 2012 he broke into a businessplace at Harmony Hall, Gasparillo, and stole items. On May 9, 2012 he stole jewelry and surveillance cameras, valued $46,180. He interfered with a car on another occasion and stole whisky and puncheon rum from another break-in incident at Harmony Hall, Gasparillo.

PC Seedan, a trained attorney, told Wellington that PC Rahim conducted investigations and arrested Baboolal, whom he said, gave his residential address as Pranz Gardens, St Margarets. Wellington read another charge to Baboolal, that he was found in possession of cocaine and a device for smoking the drug. Baboolal pleaded guilty to those offences as well. In passing sentence, Wellington asked Baboolal whether he stole in order to fund his drug habit.

Baboolal said he had gotten into an accident and needed money to repay the cost of fixing the other person’s vehicle. From the dock, he told Wellington, “Sir, I know I going to jail...but I still asking for a chance.”

Baboolal has six previous convictions for larceny and was jailed in cases heard in San Fernando, Tunapuna and Chaguanas courthouses. In sentencing Baboolal to 24 months in jail on each of the six counts of breaking and entering, Wellington told Baboolal he acted like a terrorist, stealing from people in their homes, over and over.

“Had you been in Sudan or places like that, you would’ve lost a hand or a foot. Unfortunately, I have no such power to extradite you. But you are one who would be out of circulation for a while,” Wellington said.

He ordered Baboolal to serve 24 months in jail on each of the six counts of breaking and entering. Baboolal was jailed for six months each on two counts of breaking into a car and stealing a cutlass and toiletries.

He was then ordered to serve six months and three months in jail for possession of cocaine and having a device respectively. The magistrate ordered the sentences to run concurrently, so Baboolal will serve only 24 months in jail.