A cashier who said she stole $450 to pay for school fees was fined $250 yesterday and ordered to repay the money.

Dhubreka Evans, 16, admitted stealing the money from the till at the Marketplace's Shopping Centre store, on March 21.

The crime came to light to when management noticed that some of the figures on a cash return had been altered, Crown counsel Charmaine Smith told Magistrates' Court.

Evans initially said she thought her register might only be out by a few cents, but later admitted to Police she stole the money to pay $525 fees at the Adult Education Centre.

Evans, of Middletown, Pembroke, who is pregnant, apologised to Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves, but said she needed the money to pay the fees.

She said she had only worked for about three weeks before stealing the cash, and at first told Mr. Greaves she did not know how much she was paid.

He told her: “Why did you steal the money? You had weeks to pay the school fees. People have to pay money before they can get a degree.

“You think everything has to be magic for you now? You have your priorities messed up. You are in a hurry.”

Acting Senior Magistrate Greaves berated a man whose social inquiry report recommended that he be given probation after he admitted breaking into four homes occupied by single women.

Kijon Baker, 18, of Ferry Close, St. George's repeatedly told Mr. Greaves of the break-ins: “it was a mistake” and “I wasn't thinking”.

But Mr. Greaves said: “It was a calculated act, of course you were thinking. It was not a mistake. You didn't just wander in.”

When Baker suggested that he did not know they were the homes of women, Crown counsel Shade Subair told the court that two of the victims were his neighbours.

Mr. Greaves told Baker that he was cowardly in preying on women and said he knew that if had broken into a man's home he might have been given “a good lashing”.

After Ms Subair asked for Baker to be imprisoned, Mr. Greaves said: “I am uncomfortable with this. The Probation Office wants to work with him.

“Everyone is uncomfortable about locking up young people, but who do we lock up? It is not the elderly people who are committing these crimes.”

Mr. Greaves remanded Baker in custody until November 5 when he will be sentenced.

Regulars eagerly awaiting the return of the Anchorage bar on North Shore are set to be disappointed.

Robin Swan, the club's owner has applied for Planning permission to use the facility as a mini mart and variety store. The Devonshire establishment has been going through a major overhaul for several months.