Tyrone St Elmo Holford was upset that parliamentarian Santia Bradshaw had not followed through on a promise to give him a job, so he re-embarked on a life of crime.
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However, Justice Christopher Birch told Holford his actions were not justified regardless of the promise and ordered him to serve a remaining 294 days in prison when Holford reappeared in the No. 5A Supreme Court yesterday.
Holford, 60, who has no fixed place of abode, had pleaded guilty to two counts in relation to a cheque stolen from Bradshaw’s constituency office.
He had confessed to the charge that with intent to defraud, he uttered to RBC Royal Bank a forged bill of exchange – a RBC Royal Bank cheque, payable to S. Bradshaw for $7 500, purporting to be signed on behalf of Errol Clarke Associates Ltd by Tyrone Holford.
Convictions
He also pleaded guilty to, with intent to defraud, endeavouring to obtain $7 500 from RBC Royal Bank by virtue of a forged RBC Royal Bank cheque, payable to S. Bradshaw for $7 500 purporting to be signed for Errol Clarke Associates Ltd by Tyrone Holford.
The offences occurred on December 20, 2023.
Holford, who represented himself, has 20 previous convictions – three each for criminal damage, possession of cannabis and burglary; two for resisting arrest and one each for causing a disturbance, throwing stones, using indecent language, assault, having an offensive weapon, escaping custody without the use of force, loitering with intent to commit burglary, wounding and going equipped.
Holford told the court he had worked for Bradshaw from 2012 to 2018.
“She promise me that when I had finished working for her through the canvassing that she would give me a job. I didn’t get in trouble for seven years and I worked hard. I worked sometimes from seven in the morning to two the
next morning,” he told the court.
He added Bradshaw then “disappeared for some time”.
“Then I hear she give other people jobs and I was vex she didn’t come through and that is when I start back into this life,” he told Justice Birch, as he apologised for his actions.
However the judge told him: “In life we are all made promises of one form or another. Some of the promises are binding and can be pursued in a court of law and some are made in a moment.
“Whatever promises you were made did not justify your actions. No matter how aggrieved you felt, that did not give you the right to take up what was not yours.”
Justice Birch noted the offences were not those Holford could have committed “on the spur of the moment”.
Time spent
He said he agreed with prosecutor State Counsel Eleazar Williams that the starting sentence should be three years.
The judge then increased the starting point by six months for the aggravating features and reduced it by one-third for the guilty pleas.
The judge further credited Holford for the 490 days he had spent on remand and in the end ordered him to serve the remaining 294 days or just over nine months, after Holford admitted he could not pay a fine.
State Counsel Williams had earlier argued the threshold for a custodial sentence had been crossed and the only mitigating factor was that Holford had not got any money.
Williams called Holford’s actions deliberated and premeditated, saying it appeared Holford was motivated “by not getting this job that he was promised”. ( HLE)