Convicted ex-civil servant escapes jail term
(CNS): A former civil servant who was convicted last year of stealing just under a thousand dollars from the public purse when she worked as a cashier at the Lands and Survey Department will not go to jail. Although a magistrate had handed Lavania Olivia Hume-Ebanks a 16-week jail term for the theft, the ex-government worker was bailed pending an appeal against that sentence. On Monday Justice Malcolm Swift, sitting as an appeal court on the summary judgment, suspended the sentence for 18 months.
Cayman Islands courthouse, George Town
Although Justice Swift did not dispute the period of imprisonment handed down by Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn, he found that the amount of cash stolen, CI$946, was in fact “small” . Given the various mitigating circumstances surrounding the case, including the fact that Ebanks had paid back all of the money, he did not believe an immediate custodial sentence was necessary and allowed Ebanks to go free.
Provided she does not commit any other offences over the next year and a half, the former civil servant will now avoid serving the four month term originally imposed.
As well as three counts of theft, Ebanks was also convicted of false accounting following a summary court trial last year. She was then dismissed from the government job where she had stolen the money sometime between December 2009 and July 2010. The magistrate had originally said the amount of money that was stolen should not be defined as “small”.
In addition, Ebanks breached a position of trust as a public servant and had taken advantage of a chaotic cash accounting system at the time which depended on employee honesty, when she took cash handed over by lands and survey customers.
If this was an expat it would have been a very different story
Ezzard, is she now considered unemployable or unemployed?
Why does the appeals court micromanage the trial court sentences so often? If the sentence is not unreasonable, shouldn’t it be left alone?
I am kind of ok with this. The court was basing its decision on precedents and its sentencing guidelines, As a means of ensuring fairness.
From another point of view, the subject paid the money back and has a lot to live down in a small community in which she now has to rebuild her life. And she now has a criminal record. That is huge and will impact her for many years to come. I am prepared to believe she is likely, having had this devastating experience, to take the straight and narrow over her lifetime.
Let her go in peace and give her a chance to put her life back together. I like giving people a chance at reforming — especially as, if we are totally honest, you and I would likely have to admit that there but for the grace of God go I.
And let us not add as far as possible to the prison population we are all supporting with our tax dollar. Remember, prison has not been doing a great job at rehabilitating inmates– which is the prime goal of the experience.
Don’t you realize CNS isn’t the appropriate place for reasonable, intelligent and thoughtful comments?
This is ridiculous! A slap on the wrist for stealing from the public?
REWARDED: No jail term , be good for a year and a half ; then do it again.