A Pembroke senior was yesterday given a conditional discharge after he admitted stealing food from MarketPlace.

Cleveland Simmons, 72, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing $32.21 of groceries from the Hamilton store in an incident on November 5.

The court heard that management at the store noticed Simmons placing several items in his shopping basket including a container of food from the self-serve salad counter and a block of cheese, but he did not present the items to the cash register when making his purchases.

Asked by the manager if he had any food items in his bag that he had not paid for, Simmons admitted that he did. Along with the container of food and two blocks of cheese, codfish and a package of Coffee Mate were found in his bag.

Appearing in court, Simmons said he made a bad decision, explaining: “I was asked by someone to get them something I couldn’t afford, even though I had money on my card. My ego was bigger than my common sense.”

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe noted that Simmons appeared to be genuinely remorseful and, noting that he had committed no other offences in 12 years, released the defendant with a three-month conditional discharge.

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