After a defendant pleaded guilty to three offences, Senior Crown Counsel Adam Roberts asked the court to recommend deportation, saying the man had no legal right of residence.
But Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale pointed out that the defendant, Clement Bowen, has two Caymanian children. ‘If he is deported, he can never come back.’
Such an order would be draconian, she continued. It would prohibit him from ever entering the country of his children’s birth. She wondered what might happen when the children were older and wanted to know their father.
The defendant had no work permit, she noted. And although he had been married to a Caymanian, there was now no existing marriage.
Bowen told the court his grandparents were Caymanian. He said he had spoken to Immigration officers about his situation. They asked him how he could come up with the money for residency. He said he would have to come out of custody and get a job.
Mr. Roberts said Bowen’s wish to apply for status on the ground of his grandparents had been discussed with the chairman of the Immigration Board. There was a high probability that the application would be refused in light of Bowen’s criminal record, he indicated.
The magistrate pointed out that the defendant had a right to rehabilitate himself and present himself to Immigration again. Convictions expire in seven years and he could regain his character.
‘If you keep straight and work hard, you will be entitled to ask again,’ she told Bowen. ‘For these reasons I do not make the recommendation…. The promise of the law is when you pay your debt you should be readmitted to society.’
Sentencing was postponed three times so that Attorney James Austin-Smith could be present to assist the defendant and for the immigration situation to be sorted out.
Offences
Bowen first appeared in court for burglary at a George Town department store after Hurricane Ivan. He initially denied the charge, saying he had only reached through a damaged window to salvage clothing he needed. Eventually he pleaded guilty.
He was charged with another burglary, this time of an unsecured residence from which five piggy banks, a computer, a CD burner and a TV set were reported stolen. He told the court two other men had committed the burglary and he got two of the piggy banks from them.
The Crown accepted his plea to handling stolen goods, after the magistrate wondered whether Bowen by himself and without a vehicle could not have carried away all the property reported missing.
The third charge was for uttering a false document. He had tried to cash a cheque from a chequebook kept in the name of a company. The account, however, had been closed for some time and the bank refused to cash the cheque.
Mitigation
Mr. Austin-Smith said Bowen’s break-up with his wife had been very difficult for him. Then he had suffered exceptional hardship after the storm. He had pleaded guilty to all matters and had already spent enough time in custody that would allow the magistrate to pass a sentence that would be of benefit to Bowen and the community at large by way of rehabilitation.
As to Bowen’s status, the attorney declared, ‘I have researched the law and spoken to Immigration about this. I cannot understand how the conclusion he is not Caymanian has been reached.’
Mr. Austin-Smith said Bowen’s grandmother was born in Cayman Brac and his mother was Caymanian. The attorney understood that there were moves in Jamaica to remove Bowen from there because he was not Jamaican. ‘If he is not Caymanian, he is nothing,’ the attorney asserted.
Bowen, now 28, came to Cayman when he was around 10, the court heard.
Sentencing
The magistrate first passed sentence for the burglary at the department store, from which Bowen admitted taking clothes. She said the court took a dim view of people helping themselves at the expense of others. Bowen had spoken of his difficult circumstances at the time, but the court did not accept that as a good reason ‘because we all suffered loss.’
For this offence she imposed a prison term of three months. She also activated one month of a suspended sentence imposed by another court in 2003.
For the handling of the piggy banks, she imposed a further three months, for a total of seven months.
‘Stay out of a man’s shop. Stay out of his yard. Do not put your hands on things that do not belong to you,’ she told Bowen.
As to the cheque, he had originally been charged with forgery, which he always denied. The Crown accepted a plea to uttering.
The magistrate told Bowen, ‘Making that document was a stupid scheme bound for failure. If you were in your right mind you would not have attempted it.’ She noted that Bowen was trying to get some money to alleviate his condition, but not a person in the world would have cashed that cheque from him.
The sentence was 12 months probation with conditions that Bowen attend counselling as required. The court hoped to see him back in employment and stabilised.
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