Cashier Charged With Stealing Food
In Magistrate’s Court last week, 58-year-old St David’s resident Mernagene Olliviere — a one time cashier at Lindo’s — was charged with stealing foodstuff from Lindo’s Market, however the charges were dismissed.
Following her guilty plea, the Prosecutor read out the facts, saying Ms Olliviere had charged the wrong amount on several items and had failed to pass other items through Lindo’s laser scanner.
The total value of the goods was just over $110 and the Prosecutor said that the goods were for a member of Ms Olliviere’s family. The transactions were caught on CCTV and a check of the sales machine tape had turned up and confirmed the discrepancies. On questioning by Police, Ms Ollivierre admitted to not scanning some items and undercharging others.
Magistrate Warner questioned the Prosecutor on the details of the charge, placing emphasis on the legal meaning of theft, the wording of the charge as laid, and the incidents as described in the reading out of the facts. He said that not every kind of activity constitutes theft as defined in law and that there is ample case law to support that.
The Prosecutor restated the information contained in the charge and this brought the Magistrate to comment that: “Somebody who knows what they are doing should look at these charges before they come to Court.”
The Magistrate then ruled that the facts as read did not support the legal requirements for the specific charge of theft. He ruled that in the circumstances, the legal requirements to substantiate the charge of theft had not been met.
The Senior Magistrate then rejected her plea of guilty, dismissed the charge, and discharged Ms Olliviere. However, the Magistrate told her that this did not mean that the charge could not be re-drafted and warned her that she could still be prosecuted for the offence, once the charge was re-written.
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I wonder how it has been worded for all the other persons who have come before the courts for stealing from grocery shops….This is well known theft; of course, all cashiers know about when family or friends come all a sudden scan don’t work and a lot of manual imput.. Hope she isn’t just let off, also she pleaded guilty ???? Go figure she knew what she did and never denied stealing groceries..indirectly she purposely put in the wrong amount and purposely did not scan some goods so her friends/family would pay less, that is considered taking what doesn’t belong or executing without permission a change of the sale amount? Lets see how this plays out.. where is discretion when needed!sighhhhh