Crime

(CNS): A 41 year old man was jailed for nine-months on Friday after pleading guilty to what the judge described as a “hopeless and clumsy” attempt to rob a security guard of a cash bag outside a supermarket in Savannah last December. Calmore Range was handed the custodial sentence by Justice Charles Quin after a sentencing hearing when the judge heard that prior to his bungled robbery attempt Range who is originally from Venezuela had received bad news from home about family health problems and had also been drinking.

(CNS): The LA member for East End got few answers on Tuesday when he questioned the minister for community affairs about the status of the police investigation into issues relating to the National Housing and Development Trust. Although government has claimed the work of the Trust as one its success stories because of the amount of affordable homes that have been built since the UDP administration took office, those achievements have been marred by allegations of fraud and corruption. Minister Mike Adam told Arden McLean that he could not say anything because the investigation was ongoing.

(CNS): The minister with responsibility for community affairs said that the new youth centre being developed by his ministry will be a place of protection and support that will set a high benchmark for the entire region for dealing with young offenders and troubled youth. At the ground breaking ceremony at Fairbanks in George Town on Thursday evening Adam called for support from the community for the resolve to “move beyond a punitive approach” and embrace the new programme based on the now famous Missouri model which calls on young people to confront their behaviour and account for their mistakes.

(CNS): The director of the local prison service said that two more packages of ganja came flying over the perimeter fence at Northward on Tuesday just a couple of hours before he attended the Legislative Assembly Tuesday. Speaking during the finance committee meeting about the efforts to control the use of drugs inside the prison in light of recent revelations of drugs found in administrative areas, Dwight Scott told members that he and his staff were doing all they could but people would stop at nothing to get the drugs inside.  Scott said that just two hours before he left the jail to come to the meeting two packages had been recovered by staff.

(CNS): Although the electronic tagging of defendants on bail awaiting trials has proved a positive resource for law enforcement officials as well as those accused of a crime one young accused man could lose his job because the tags are not waterproof the court heard Friday. Defence attorney John Furness pointed out the difficulties one of his clients faced as a result of working for a local watersports operator when he said the tags don’t allow the wearers to go below six feet in the water. The lawyer also pointed out that the tag was becoming an issue as his employer was concerned about the reaction tourists may have.

(CNS): Police are looking for the owners of two pieces of stolen property recovered last week. A toolkit and a laptop, both suspected of being stolen, were recovered by police last week during the course of an investigation. Officers from George Town police station have circulated the photographs of the items in the hope of reuniting the stolen goods with their owners. Detective Sergeant Ian McDonald is asking anyone who recognises either the Toshiba laptop or the Performance tool kit to contact him as soon as possible as he reminded owners to take a record of their valuables.

(CNS): Two young men both charged with possession of unlicensed firearms in relation to two separate offences pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in Grand court on Friday. As the police increase the pressure on local men suspected of being involved in gangs, they have made several arrests relating to gun crimes recently. However, both Robert Aaron Crawford and Kurt Carter pleaded not guilty to the respective firearms charges against them which include a nine-millimetre luger and a .38 revolver as well as ammunition.

(CNS): Premier McKeeva Bush says he wants to create a Cayman Islands ‘disaster defence force’ once the country is in a position to afford it. Speaking at the official inauguration of the customs new crime fighting equipment this week, Bush revealed his wish list for when the country is better off financially for further crime fighting and security measures.  He said it was a long standing goal to create Cayman’s own special cadre of personnel that would work alongside the RCIPS in special circumstances, such as in the wake of a hurricane or other emergency situations, to protect the public.

(CNS): A spokesperson for the RCIPS confirmed Thursday evening that the police had received a report earlier in the week concerning a possible home invasion at Lakeside Villas in George Town. The police said that the report of masked men invading a home in the early morning hours of Tuesday when three residents were said to have been tied up was not reported to the police until sometime after the incident had occurred.  “We can confirm we received a report late Tuesday morning of an incident at Lakeside that had occurred some 12 hours earlier. The facts of the matter have not yet been established and police enquiries are on-going,” the spokesperson stated.

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has spent more than ten percent of its entire budget on fighting crime and the criminal justice system, the premier has revealed. Speaking at a special ceremony to mark the official inauguration of the customs department’s new hi-tech scanner, the premier said his government was serious about tackling crime. The new equipment, along with an earlier financial boost to the law enforcement budget on top of appropriated funds has culminated in the UDP administration spending more than $57 million this financial year on crime fighting and border security.

(CNS): The former president of the University College of Cayman Islands, who is wanted by local police in connection with money he is alleged to have misappropriated during his tenure, was spotted by a CNS reader this weekend in Vegas. Hassan Syed was checking out at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas on Saturday morning when he was caught on camera. Syed was at the centre of a financial scandal at the university in 2008 when the auditor general uncovered financial irregularities after Syed disappeared. For almost four years the local police have been investigating the suspected fraud, in which the former university boss is believed to have spent public cash on Tiffany jewellery and expensive overseas trips.

(CNS): As a result of ganja found in the administrative wings of HMP Northward, as well as inside the secure perimeter fences of the prison recently, all guards, prison staff and even officials in the Portfolio of Internal Affairs have been tested for drugs, including the portfolio’s chief officer, Eric Bush. All tests over the four day period were negative, Bush said. The tests were made as the portfolio plans changes to improve the overall operations and effectiveness of Cayman's prison system, and a team of two representatives from the UK prison’s inspectorate visited Cayman this week to do some preliminary assessments ahead of a full inspection expected to take place early in the next financial year.

(CNS): A resident of Greenwood Drive, off Washington Blvd in George Town took on two masked assailants armed with a gun in the early hours of Sunday morning when they attempted to invade his home. Police said that officers were called to the scene at around 1.18am where a man living at the property said as he entered his residence he was approached by two masked men dressed in full black clothing, who pointed a gun at him and ordered him not to move. The victim however, slapping the gun away from him and ran into his house. The gunmen fled the scene and police say they have a vehicle currently in police custody but no arrests have been made at this time.

(CNS): Crime fell by the slimmest of margins in 2011 when compared to 2010, according to figures released on Friday by the RCIPS, but there were half as many offences on Cayman’s roads last year than the year before. Between January and December 756 serious crimes were reported to police compared to 766 in 2010 -- a dip of 1.31%. Volume and less serious crimes fell by just over five per cent and drug arrests increased slightly by just over 2.68%. The dramatic shift in the figures, however, was in the number of traffic offences, which fell from 8,888 in 2010 to 4,429 last year.

(CNS): Detectives investigating the shooting incident outside Club 7 in the early hours of Ash Wednesday are making a further appeal for witnesses to come forward. Detective Sergeant Joseph Wright, the officer leading the investigation, said: “I believe that there were other people in the area when the shooting happened outside Club 7 just after 3am on Wednesday 22 February. These people have not come forward as yet. I would ask them to contact me at George Town police station on 949-4222 as they may have information which is relevant to the enquiry.”