accused of trying to steal from a visitor.

George Brown, 31, of Stovell Bay Road, Pembroke, denied attempting to steal a purse, credit cards and $100 in cash from a visiting English woman on May 30 last year.

The Court heard the crime was committed by a man riding a motorcycle down Woodbourne Road, Pembroke.

The man stopped and asked the victim, Peggy Richardson, for the time. He then tried to grab her purse and get away.

But the woman's husband, who testified in December, said he grabbed the man's bike and refused to let it go.

Richardson's husband then pulled the man from the bike and they both fell to the ground. The assailant fled the scene on foot, leaving the purse and the bike behind.

A passing taxi driver called 911. However, he could not identify the man as Brown.

Police arrested Brown after he reported his bike stolen the day after the crime took place.

Brown's bike was identified as the bike involved in the crime, but Brown claimed he had left his bike in Hamilton overnight and had taken a taxi home because he had lost his keys.

This was confirmed by Brown's wife.

He also told the Court that grazes and cuts on his leg -- which prosecutor Sgt. Kenrick James said Police suspected came from scuffling with the victim's husband -- came from a fall off a ladder while he was working.

After listening to the evidence, Mr. Francis said the prosecution had failed to prove its case, and dismissed the charge.

Brown was represented by lawyer Sen. Lawrence Scott.