Jul 30, 2010
Yam Thief Tries To Profit From The Sweat Of The Brow Of Others; Gets 18 Months In Prison
43 year old Radcliffe Plummer of a Trelawny address, appeared in the Trelawny Resident Magistrate’s Court at Ulster Spring yesterday, where he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, after he was convicted of praedial larceny. Notably, as the Resident Magistrate was handing down the sentence, she reportedly told Plummer “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, not the sweat of another man’s brow.”
The court heard that at about 5:30 pm on May 19, the complainant, Vinton Gordon, went to his yam field at Durham in Trelawny where he saw Plummer digging his yams. Gordon reportedly observed Plummer (whom he knew for many years) for 15 minutes before calling the police. Plummer was held with the stick and machete that he was using to reap the yams, and he was subsequently taken into custody and charged with praedial larceny of 165 pounds of yam.
Plummer entered a plea of guilty on his first appearance in court on July 27, adding that he had planned to compensate Gordon. On July 29, his relatives brought $50,000, which was given to Gordon. After receiving the money, Gordon asked the court for leniency on Plummer’s behalf. Judge Barnes said she was being as lenient as she could under the circumstances, as Plummer’s action was “unconscionable” in a society where everyone wanted to reap what they had not sown. He was given the 18 month sentence where the maximum sentence for the offence is three years.