Peo­ple should be able to walk on Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do, with­out fear of a se­r­i­al ban­dit, says Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan. Ram­bachan made the re­mark in the San Fer­nan­do First Court as an at­tor­ney rep­re­sent­ing Dane Rob­ley, 18, plead­ed with him not to send the teenag­er to jail. Rob­ley ad­mit­ted that last week Tues­day he robbed two peo­ple of their cell­phones on Cof­fee Street with­in two hours. Around 7.50 pm, he robbed a man of his $900 Nokia cell­phone and around 9.10 pm, he robbed a woman of her $5,000 iPhone. As he was run­ning away af­ter com­mit­ting the sec­ond rob­bery, he was held by PC Per­reira. The phones were re­cov­ered.

Say­ing that his client was sor­ry, at­tor­ney Me­wha­lal Cha­toor asked what could be done to save him. Ram­bachan said: "The ques­tion is what can be done to save the cit­i­zens of T&T from young men like him." Po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Ram­dath Phillip said Rob­ley was not traced, but had one con­vic­tion for mar­i­jua­na. The mag­is­trate ad­journed the mat­ter to Mon­day for trac­ing and sen­tence.