A West Bay man has been sentenced to 14 years and six months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing jewellery worth over $190,000 in an armed raid on the CashWiz store in North Church Street in May this year.
James Herbert McLean Jnr, 34, who had previously been given a 12-year jail sentence for an armed robbery on Diamonds International jewellery store in 2014, pleaded guilty to six charges relating to the George Town robbery in October.
He was sentenced by Justice Emma Peters on 17 Dec. who said “criminals must know that there is a heavy cost associated with committing these kind of offences, and a particularly high price if you repeat them”.
Doors smashed
According to the police report, McLean and another man – who is yet to come before the court – arrived at CashWiz on bicycles just after 11am on Wednesday, 28 May 2025, and smashed the door open using a concrete boulder.
CCTV footage shows terrified customers and staff running from the men who were disguised with masks. Both men were seen carrying guns and, during the raid, one of them fired his weapon into the ceiling.
After smashing display cases and stealing jewellery, they made their getaway using a blue Honda Fit which McClean had hired a week earlier.
Police officers pursued the car and later found it abandoned, with the engine still running. Inside, officers found guns, ammunition, clothing including a black balaclava and a pair of black gloves, a large quantity of jewellery, and a backpack containing the defendant’s driver’s licence and bank card.
McLean was subsequently found hiding and arrested, with his own defence barrister later describing his performance as a robber as “woeful”.
In handing down the sentence, Peters said she had taken into account the fact that McLean had entered a guilty plea and that he had expressed his remorse for the offences and had apologised to CashWiz and to the wider community.
Criminal history
Aggravating factors were also taken into consideration, including the planning of the robbery, the fact it occurred in broad daylight, the attempts to conceal the robbers’ identities, and, most significantly, McLean’s history of armed robbery.
“That he has again committed such a similar and serious offence is therefore an aggravating factor of the utmost severity,” Peters said.
The owner of the CashWiz store said in a victim impact statement that his staff had been traumatised by the raid and there had also been a significant decline in business following the robbery. Around $60,000 of stolen goods remains unrecovered.
Risk to the wider community
In her sentencing remarks, Peters said that there were “a shocking number of young men who don masks as disguises … gather up weaponry and feel confident enough to brazenly enter commercial premises in broad daylight and threaten those staff and customers in those shops with weapons in order to steal.
“Such offending not only impacts those who live here and causes them a great deal of fear, but such offences also have the potential not just to cause economic harm to the businesses targeted in this way, but there is a risk of economic harm to these islands as a whole.”
She added, “The Cayman Islands are an idyllic tourist destination for travellers who are reassured and attracted by the safe reputation that the Cayman Islands has. If tourists and cruise ship passengers are to find that visiting George Town on their day on this island is to be put at risk by masked criminals wielding loaded firearms, seeing fit to rob the many jewellery businesses around George Town in broad daylight, then the island as a whole will suffer, not just those who live here.”
Peters said that she had decided against imposing a life sentence, which was permissible for a serious second offence of this nature, and it was only the fact that McLean pleaded guilty and showed remorse that the sentences imposed were not higher.
McLean was sentenced to 14 years and six months’ imprisonment for the count of robbery, 10 years each on two counts of possession of an unlicensed firearm, and 10 years each for two counts of possession of ammunition, all to be served concurrently.
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He rented the getaway car and left his driving license in the car.
There was no doubt he would be found guilty; so should he receive credit for a guilty plea?
A life sentence would have been appropriate in my opinion.
He should be given a life sentence due to his past history of committing such crimes and they need to stop giving them time off for good behavior let them serve all the time they have been sentenced for
this is a repeat offender and should never be let out of jail to do it again