A man was given a six-month suspended sentence this week after he admitted stealing a motorcycle.

Jovon Virgil, 32, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to taking a motorcycle without the consent of the owner.

The court heard that police officers on patrol on Front Street, Hamilton, saw Virgil walking a bike through Albouy’s Point in the early hours of May 23 last year.

Virgil said when questioned that he had borrowed the motorcycle from a friend, but left his keys at the nearby Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

He added: “I can’t leave it here overnight, I borrowed it from a friend.”

Police ran the licence plate through a police database and found the owner of the motorcycle.

They contacted the woman motorcyclist, who said that she had not given permission for anyone to move her bike.

Virgil was arrested and the motorcycle was taken to Hamilton Police Station and later reunited with its owner.

The victim told police that she had left her motorcycle near Brown and Company overnight because of mechanical problems.

CCTV obtained later showed Virgil move the bike from its parking space towards Albouy’s Point.

Virgil, from Pembroke, at first denied the offence, but changed his plea yesterday.

Nicole Smith, the Crown prosecutor, said that Virgil had been convicted of similar offences in the past and asked for a three-month prison sentence.

But Vaughan Caines, for the defence, said that his client had a “clean record” since 2014 and had responded well to his previous sentences.

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe sentenced Virgil to six months’ imprisonment, but suspended the sentence for two years. But he warned Virgil that if he committed more offences during the suspension, he faced jail.

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