jailed for nine months for the same two crimes.

Floyd Spence, 29, originally had pleaded not guilty to getting a taxi ride on false pretences last Monday after he failed to pay the $31 fare and to damaging a white van in Sandys on the same day.

Four Policemen were needed to restrain Spence at the initial hearing last week but later he apologised to Magistrate Edward King and changed his pleas to guilty.

Spence, of no fixed abode, admitted breaking the wing mirror of his father's car in the early hours last Monday after failing to pay the taxi ride to the address at Robinson's Marina.

When asked to explain himself, Spence said he was undergoing trials and tribulations as his girlfriend was four months pregnant -- he said his father hadn't paid him for work he had done.

The court heard Spence had not paid for a taxi journey and wilfully damaged Somerset Police Station in June of last year. Spence had also been convicted for damaging his stepmother's property and not paying for taxi trip worth $21 in May.

The accused said: "My step mom was doing a lot of voodoo craziness. She sacrificed my puppy but I only just found that out.

"When I was called to Jesus, she had a seizure and when I was delivered to Jesus Christ she died.'' Spence said he was confessing to his latest crimes because he didn't want to waste the court's time and he was making efforts to sort himself out.

He said: "I am on medication. I realised I was saying things I am not supposed to and thinking things I'm not supposed to.'' Spence also said he had been getting help from the Salvation Army and drug counsellors Focus and had just started with detox centre Turning Point on Monday.

He added: "I have been in and out of jail -- I need to support my child.'' However, Mr. King said Spence was repeatedly committing the same offence and he sentenced him to a total of nine months in prison.

EX-BANK LOAL OFFICER DENIES $13,000 THEFT CTS Ex-bank loan officer denies $13,000 theft A former bank officer has denied stealing more than $13,000.

Former Bank of Butterfield loan officer Stanford Seepersad, pleaded not guilty in Magistrates' Court last week to 11 separate counts of stealing money totalling $13,851.17. The alleged crimes took place between July and October of 1998.

Seepersad, 31, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith's Parish, appeared without legal counsel in Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning.

Magistrate Edward King reserved two full days in July for the trial to be heard. Seepersad was released on $5,000 bail and a like surety.