An­na-Lisa Paul

A 28-year-old sales­man of NWT En­ter­pris­es, Chanka Trace, El So­cor­ro, was fined $5,000 af­ter he plead­ed guilty to steal­ing 17 Christ­mas trees from his em­ploy­er. Kirk Williams, of Man­gra Trace, Aranguez, apol­o­gised for his ac­tions when he ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Glo­ria Jas­math in the Port-of-Spain Eleventh Court on Mon­day.

Williams told the court: "A thought just come in­to my head be­cause I was ow­ing on my rent and oth­er bills." If he fails to pay the mon­ey with­in a month, Williams will serve 12 months' hard labour in de­fault. The court heard that around 10 am on Oc­to­ber 5, the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of the com­pa­ny asked Williams to take a de­liv­ery truck to have the front tyres changed.

Up­on his re­turn, it was dis­cov­ered that 17 Christ­mas trees, val­ued at $4,400, which had been stowed in a com­part­ment on the back of the truck, were miss­ing. Williams lat­er ad­mit­ted to drop­ping off the trees at a busi­ness place at Ram­goolie Trace, Curepe, and took po­lice to the lo­ca­tion, where the items were re­cov­ered.

Of­fer­ing an ex­pla­na­tion for his ac­tions, Williams said, "I have been a vic­tim of evic­tion and ex­tor­tion in re­cent times." Williams went on to ex­plain that he was fi­nan­cial­ly bur­dened with a two-year-old son, a preg­nant fi­ancee, the cost of putting his fi­ancee through teach­ers' train­ing col­lege, and al­so pay­ing the bills.