Cop sliced for $100 cheese – Policewoman loses job as simple-larceny appeal fails
A slice of cheese valued at a little more than $100 has cost a policewoman her job and given the Court of Appeal the chance to rule on whether the act of shoplifting is done only when a person leaves an establishment without paying for the goods.
“This is really frightening and I really feel sad to know that a slice of cheese could be so tempting that my colleague could end up in this embarrassing situation,” one member of the police force told The Sunday Gleaner after news broke that the policewoman had lost her appeal against her conviction for simple larceny.
The case will now be used as a precedent as the Court of Appeal thoroughly researched several English cases and reviewed the Larceny Act before deciding that the policewoman’s conviction should not be overturned.
It was once widely held that the customer had to exit the building before he or she could be accosted for stolen items, but in its ruling the Court of Appeal held that it is not so.
ALLEGED INCIDENT
Georgette Tyndale was a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force in March 2012 when she went to a supermarket in Mandeville, Manchester, and placed the slice of cheese in her handbag.
She had picked up other items, placed them in a basket, which she took to the cashier’s counter and cashed them. After she cashed the goods, the assistant manager of the supermarket went up to her and informed her that she was seen putting the piece of cheese in her handbag.
It is reported that Tyndale said it must have dropped in her handbag when she was taking out money.
However, when she was interviewed by the police she gave a different story.
Tyndale reportedly told the police that the cheese must have fallen into her handbag when she was placing some money in it.
She was charged with simple larceny and at the trial in the Manchester Parish Court in 2012, evidence was given that she first took the piece of cheese and placed it between two water bottles on a shelf.
A few minutes later she returned, took up the piece of cheese and placed it in her handbag.
The policewoman then cashed some items and did not pay for the cheese. She was on her way out of the supermarket when she was accosted by the assistant manager.
TYNDALE’S ACCOUNT
In her defence, Tyndale said she was at the cashier’s counter waiting for her change when the assistant manager spoke to her about the cheese in her handbag. She said she told him it was a genuine mistake and offered to pay for it, but he refused.
Parish judge Oswald Burchenson found her guilty of simple larceny and placed her on probation for two years.
Attorney-at-law Norman Godfrey, who represented Tyndale, filed several grounds of appeal while contending that the judge failed to properly and adequately assess the evidence adduced by the prosecution.
Godfrey argued that the judge erred when he held that “the intention of the accused is sufficiently manifested on the evidence of having no intention to purchase the article when she placed it in her handbag and did not have to pass the cashier’s cage to commit the offence”.
INCONSISTENT MATERIAL
The judge said Tyndale’s account of how the piece of cheese came to be in her handbag “is not only conflicting but flies in the face of reasoning”.
Godfrey submitted that although it was recognised that under certain circumstances the larceny could have taken place before Tyndale passed the checkout counter, that was not the case advanced by the prosecution.
According to Godfrey, there was material inconsistency as to the point where she was accosted.
He noted that Tyndale was not denying that she did not pay for the cheese, but it was for the judge to make a determination whether or not she had left the cashier’s station when she was accosted, because that would go to the question as to whether the purchase was complete.
The attorney further argued that in a case of larceny, intent and asportation were important ingredients to the offence.
Godfrey said based on the comments the judge made, the act of larceny was complete at the point where she placed the cheese in her handbag. It showed that the judge did not take into account the question of asportation.
But Crown Counsel Leighton Morris asked the court not to overturn the conviction because the actus reus (taking the cheese) and the mens rea (placing the cheese in the bag and not paying for it) were present and so the crime was complete.
President of the Court of Appeal Justice Dennis Morrison, Justice Paulette Williams and Justice Carol Edwards, in dismissing the appeal, said the goods remain the property of the owner of the supermarket until “the price is paid, and it is only then that the property in the goods passes to the shopper.
“In our view, in order for the shopper to be found guilty of stealing from a self-serve store such as a supermarket under the Larceny Act, the shopper must have taken away and carried away the goods without the consent of the owner with a dishonest intent to permanently deprive the owner of it at the time of taking.”
The judges said the “mere removal of goods from the shelf was not sufficient to amount to asportation as it was done under limited permission by the proprietor for the purpose of the transaction at the cashier, and the crime is only complete where, after the licence terminates at the point of offer and acceptance, that is, at the cashier station, the shopper, with intent to steal, deliberately fails to tender payment for the goods”.
They also found that the parish judge adopted the correct view and there was sufficient evidence on which he could have found that Tyndale was guilty of the charge of larceny.
Now she has a criminal record for a slice of cheese, I never knew Jamaica had Loss Prevention Officers in supermarkets, very impressive, and for it to go through the court (applause). We need more to follow this trend, let them think twice before attempting to steal
What the hell you people really know about Jamaica?! Good god man! were you people so cased up in your yards and dung de road zinc shops that you don’t know we’re not a primitive society?
You blacks really reach a foreign and think your homeland is riddled with primates and being in foreign with whites make you homo sapiens?!
Go through the courts?!?! You never know people go prison fi cut people callaloo and fi thief ackee? Good god man onu really screwed.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk
Bwoy, thank God mi can look back wid pride during my hungry days dem. Mi clip coupons and use grocery flyers fi shop frugally. Cheese was a luxury in those days weh mi not even looked at. Ate lots of cabbage and simple foods like black beans and rice, missed many lunches. This lady lose more dan a work, she lose her dignity and ability to walk without a spot gense her name just fi a slice of cheese. Worse part about it is dat cheese is not even a healthy food fi black ppl consume, since most black folks lactose intolerant in adulthood anyways. She messed up her life fi summen weh her body not even can tolerate…kmt.
I’m not saying that she deserves to get away with it but meanwhile the scammers, child abusers and fake Portmore taxi drivers continue their crime unabated. Just saying.
She is a an officer of the law. Sworn in to uphold the laws of the land and to arrest those not in compliance of such laws. Her breaking that oath makes her worst than those you listed above.
That could have been me… In August I was in Jamaica for the emancipation and independence holidays. I decided to have a little get together at my house and thus went shopping on a sunday. Not many business place or wholesale was open but a few “elite” supermarkets, we stopped by one in crossroads, Brooklyn it name if me no lie. Bought some items and while shopping I took up a slice of cheese (how ironic), eat the slice a cheese cause a long time me no taste a slice a good old tastees cheese. I placed the bag in the trolley and continued shopping. Lo and behold I made it to the cashier and cashed the items that was in the cart, I swear I don’t memba nothing bout the likkle poly bag weh the cheese did inna. Apparently it had fallen through the space in the shopping cart and ended up on the floor somewhere, dem watch me cash over 18,000 worth of goods and pay. Then me see one man look like bouncer a hand the bag to me saying “miss you didn’t pay for this”. I felt flushed and though omg, I boldly took it from him and told him it was an accident as I did put it in my cart didn’t see it or thought of it, the cashier stretched out her hands for the money suspiciously. I paid about 120 for it and then felt mad about the likkle piece a cheese and how me just spend nearly $20000 in deh. I guess her explanation and the series of events leading up to caused a different outcome than mine but sometimes you so distracted you put you self in a problem if you no mind sharp.
I know a top notch lawyer who coulda get her off! She teef it fi true n we’ve seen this Winona Ryder behaviour before.GlaD u were unscathed Dearest how yuh like ur coffee!
Police woman lose her job over $100 slice of cheese.
Man imprisioned in MoBay for $50 spliff, loses his life because a police woman didn’t like his comment about her.
Justice??
Went into a Pharmacy once where the security monitor your every move to the point of discomfort. Well me at least.
Picked up some items and went to cash out.
While standing in the line to cash i was fiddling in my pocket and touched something which felt unfamiliar.
When i took it out the whole incident of me picking it up off the shelf and placing it in my pocket replayed in my mind. I had picked it up, decided against getting it then subconsciously placed it in my pocket. In my mind i had put it back on the shelf.
I tossed it on the counter, cashed my items and left.
Just made me wonder if this could have been the case with this police officer.
The entire story seems so weird almost karma-esque. If she offered to pay then what’s the issue and why didn’t her fellow officers seek to help her beat the rap as usual? Odd.
Just recently in an upt supermarket a ghetto girl was wrongfully accused of shoplifting. In the same brooklyn hwt i had to cuss and gwaan bad after my every move was being shadowed by a security. All dem know if do is watch who dem nuffi watch.
She stole the item. She premeditated and carried out the act, and lied twice.
Placing the chesse between the water bottles on the shelf.
Go back for the stashed item
Putting it in her bag.
There’s no way to work around those 3 details.
I kno some supermarkets at least here in the States once you eat whatever you picked up in the supermarket you don’t have to pay for it….but once you open the package or bottle and stepped through the door and not pay then that’s a whole new shit fi u.
And there are stores that will get you for tasting a grape.
In many instance you don’t need to pass the threshold to be considered a shoplifter. General liability is one of the reasons the states laws are a bit relax on how they apprehend thieves. It will change to be similar to Jamaica’s interpretation because of the high volume insurance payouts for lost merchandise.