Hunger, unemployment and financial hardship are emerging as recurring explanations behind a string of theft cases before Barbados’ courts this month.
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However, some officials are warning that desperation cannot become a licence to steal.
In publicly reported court cases involving theft, several accused told magistrates they were struggling to survive, could not afford food or had fallen on hard times.
Matthew Dargon, 36, told Magistrate Jared Richards, “I was hungry”, after admitting to stealing a can of tuna from Massy Stores on August 2.
Dargon, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, said he had some coins but not enough to buy the $2.09 item. When Richards asked why he did not simply ask Massy for the tuna or seek money from someone, Dargon said he was not sure anyone would have helped him.
He was placed on a six-month bond, with three months’ imprisonment if he breached it.
A similar explanation came from O’brian David Barnes, 42, who admitted taking $67.81 in food and other items from Massy Warrens on August 6. His haul included water, Gatorades, Coca-Cola, soaps and chips.
When Richards asked why he took the items, Barnes replied: “I didn’t have all the money.”
Barnes, a first-time offender who told the court that things had not been going well financially, was released on $200 bail pending a presentencing report.
Anthony Allan Best, 66, admitted stealing a $16 pack of Farmer’s Choice ham and two Waitrose chocolates valued at $19 from Massy Oistins on August 20.
Best, who has no fixed address, was sentenced to three months in prison but Magistrate Gayl Scott suspended the sentence for six months.
Two men, Jermain Hartley Cox, 35 and Robert Mark Omar Harris, 50, both unemployed, admitted stealing more than $1 800 worth of goods from Crouching Tigers Company.
Their bounty included chicken, beef, pork, chow mein, tablets, knives, cleaning materials and 66 beers.
Cox also admitted separately stealing a television, two colognes and a bottle of rum valued at $1 480.
The men told the court that despite their “long history of theft”, they turned to stealing when work became slow because “things are very hard out there”.
In another case, a St Joseph woman was reported to have stolen $17 worth of food from a Bridgetown supermarket despite having almost $300 in her purse.
For Reverend Canon Noel Burke, the circumstances surrounding some of these offences might deserve compassion, but stealing remains wrong.
“Stealing is both illegal and immoral,” he said, stressing that individuals have a right to their private property and should not have it taken without permission.
But Burke, who also tutors ethics and citizenship part-time at Barbados Community College, said society has a responsibility to ensure that people do not go hungry.
“I can still recall when neighbours shared ground provisions,” he said.
“No one was obligated to, but persons did it out of charity.”
He warned, however, that accepting hunger as a justification for stealing could have dangerous consequences.
“If we say it is okay to steal because of hunger, then society would break down. Yet one can understand situations born out of desperation.”
Burke believes the courts could take that desperation into account.
“In a case where someone is so hungry that they were driven to desperate acts, the person presiding may exercise mercy, because mercy and justice go hand-in-hand,” he said.
That balance between accountability and compassion is also recognised by Major Robert Pyle, Divisional Commander responsible for the Salvation Army in Barbados and St Lucia.
“Stealing is wrong, however you look at it,” Pyle said.
He said if it could be established that someone genuinely needs food, “mercy and compassion can be applied. . . .When you are terribly hungry, it can drive you to do things you would not normally do,” he said.
For a first-time offender who steals food, Pyle believes a warning might sometimes be appropriate, particularly because, “Provision is there in the society for you to get something to eat, if you are truly hungry,” he said.
The Barbados Police Service, however, is unequivocal about where the law stands.
Inspector Ryan Brathwaite, Communications and Public Affairs Officer, said hunger does not remove the legal consequences of theft.
“Theft is illegal. Whether you are hungry or not. It affects somebody else because that person will suffer a loss,” he said.
“Even though you are hungry, there are other ways to go about getting assistance in order to get something to eat,” he said. (SD)
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