Jewel thief gets six-month prison term

| 16/09/2016 | 33 Comments
Cayman News Service

Mitzi’s Fine Jewelry, Grand Cayman

(CNS): A 38-year-old woman who admitted stealing several pieces of jewellery worth around $26,000 from a store on the West Bay Road in November last year was jailed for six months on Thursday by the Summary Court. Madeiny Rodrigues-Ebanks pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing a diamond ring, a gold necklace, a diamond pendent and a charm bracelet from Mitzi’s Fine Jewellery. The woman had worked in the store as a clerk and her defence attorney described her as a “work-horse” who was desperate when she stole the jewellery.

The court heard that Ebanks was a single mother with a teenage son and an 11-year-old daughter who was earning $1,400 per month when she worked at the store, doing everything from sweeping the floors to stock taking. She had lived in Cayman for more than 20 years and had never committed a crime, but at the time of the theft from her boss she had found herself in dire circumstances, her defence attorney stated.

Ebanks had originally denied the allegations, but when presented with the CCTV footage, she came clean and went with her employer to the pawn store where she had fenced the jewels, allowing the designer to recover her property.

The court found that in accordance with the chief justice’s guidelines in case of breach of trust between employers and a convicted employee, an immediate term of imprisonment was required. Given all of the circumstances, including a 25% discount for her admissions, Ebanks was jailed for six months.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags:

Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (33)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Thats not the only employer she robbed she did that in 2 previous employments just that they just fired her and didnt call police shes a born thief

  2. Anonymous says:

    You people have nothing better than to sit around and gossip about somebody who’s situation you know nothing about. Imagine if you were one of her children, how would you feel? I feel for those poor kids who obviously have had nothing to do with this since the country that they were born in aren’t giving them a drop of sympathy. $1,400 a month is absolutely nothing in Cayman, nothing! Who the hell can live off of that? This is an expensive ass Island! I’m not condoning the stealing, because that’s wrong and the jailtime is well deserved, but I also cannot condone us as Caymanian people being so vengeful and disturbing. These comments sicken me.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Whilst I do not condone stealing from your employer, I can understand the desperation of a single mother of 2 kids to support and earning so little. It is likely that “Deadbeat Dad” contributes little if nothing at all in respect of the maintenance and welfare of his children. In my opinion, truly a sad situation for the children.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Cayman can’t depot after crime if status is given yet USA can? Very confusing read this http://www.dawn.com/news/379148/new-law-allows-deportation-of-naturalized-us-citizens

    • Anonymous says:

      We can. We are just incompetent.

    • Anonymous says:

      its interesting that she got a 25% reduction in time due to her confessing. however it also says she said she was innocent until she saw they had evidence then she changed her story.

  5. Gringos and Paseros says:

    We made way for the bandaleros.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t there a Law if your not Caymanian and go to Prison for over a year, you will get deported back to Original home country?

    Or status holder taken away?

    What a shame Cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes. But we do not follow our laws.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank goodness we don’t 4:12 because if we did we would have huge numbers of Caymanians being prosecuted for all sorts of things.

    • Anonymous says:

      Blame the leaders and the government, for not making examples of these imported criminals, ghost are dragging us through the ground.

    • Anonymous says:

      Sentence is 6mos, for which she’ll serve 3, which is still less than a year even in Cayman.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Another one of Fidel and Raul rejects who was imported for local political votes.

  8. Anonymous says:

    She has been here for the last 20 years’ she has Cayman paper. No deportation for her.

    If she was caught with weed, minimum of 2 – 3 years, but how is petty theft a slap on the risk won’t hurt her nor the house arrest of 4 months after her 6 months of Vacation stay. LOL.

    Lesson learnt.

    The jury closes – NO DEPORTATION!!

    Case CLOSED!

  9. Anonymous says:

    Coming soon to an Expungement Board near you!

  10. Anonymous says:

    Revocation of documents and Deportation would be a better lesson.
    Miss Mitzi has a lot of her own troubles as well.

    Crime pattern now a days is to blame lack of child support or addicted to drugs.
    You offer work to some of these people and in turn they start to compensate themselves.

    No salary figure will ever be enough.
    Fingers are so sticky on some of them, if they put on a mask they could scale buildings.

    • Veritas says:

      At least she had a valid reason and not sheer naked greed like a couple of prominent locals who hit the headlines.

      • Anonymous says:

        How does theft become okay if you have a valid reason!! Veritas, YOU and that attitude is what’s wrong here. I’m guessing you are born and bred Caymanian. Because that is the attitude around here about crime.

        • Anonymous says:

          A thief is a thief in whatever form you choose to identify it. She stole from the hand that feed her. Dishonest, bare face thief. She took what wasn’t legally hers.

      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t think there is any valid reason to steal?

  11. Anonymous says:

    Deportation Order?

    • Anonymous says:

      When these people come to Cayman and commit crimes,mother should be expelled/ deported from here. Their status should state that any crime committed would cause them to loose it. We are harbouring criminals and the system is encouraging it. How or when will The Cayman that I knew be any better than it is now? Too many undiserables impinging on our way of life and changing the play ground to their notorious games.

      • Anonymous says:

        How did she aquire an Ebanks surname…..are they selling them now?

        • Anonymous says:

          Being an Ebanks does NOT mean you are Caymanian. It is a common name around the region including Honduras and parts of Cuba.

    • Anonymous says:

      Only if she can take the two serial child rapists with her

    • Veritas says:

      It’s a great pity you can’t deport all these child molesters – we all know why!.

    • Anonymous says:

      Give us a break with your “deportation order”

      • Anonymous says:

        Why? The law says it should be considered. It is not. When the law is followed, I will shut up.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.