Taking up a bottle of Bulgari perfume and sprinting out of Cave Shepherd was “one of those erroneous” things that all human beings make, Raphael Joslin Scotland declared yesterday.
“It was erroneous. Sometimes all of us make mistakes with our mental faculties and that was the case. It was erroneous,” he told the District “A” Magistrates’ Court.
The 35-year-old, of no fixed place of abode, had just admitted stealing the $173.99 bottle of perfume from Cave Shepherd last Saturday.
He apologised to Duty Free Caribbean and said he had a “what you would call a substance abuse problem with marijuana and a psychiatric problem.
“Sometimes I don’t think straight and I tend to make errors like any human being and that was one of those errors,” he said, as he pleaded to be sent to Verdun House.
Scotland said his conviction card would show he was last in prison 12 years ago.
Magistrate Douglas Frederick remanded him to the Psychiatric Hospital for three weeks’ evaluation. Scotland returns to court on May 3.
Prosecutor Sergeant Rudy Pilgrim said the thief went into the Broad Street store, took up the bottle of perfume and ran out. He was pursued but eluded security personnel in the Nelson Street area.
The next day, police received information and went to Chefette on Lower Broad Street where they saw and arrested him.
The perfume was not recovered. (HLE)
