The oldest matter on the Supreme Court calendar was finally resolved yesterday when former banker Calvin Shabazz was sent to prison for two months for stealing $43,500 more than four years ago.

At an earlier court appearance, Shabazz, 45, who was a former assistant manager of retail operations at the Bank of Bermuda, pleaded guilty to misusing a general ledger account.

He used the account to make several unauthorised transactions.

On October 19, 1990 he debited the account for a sum of $2,500 which he then gave to Ron I Travel. This money was not recovered.

He then made another improper transaction for $25,000 which was loaned to a fellow employee who had been turned down for a consumer loan.

She used the money to assist with a property purchase and agreed to pay the money in $500 monthly instalments. The woman paid back $1,500 but Shabazz cashed these himself. This was totally unauthorised and the employee did not know this.

On December 17, 1990 Shabazz made another unauthorised debt for $16,000 using falsified documents. He used this money to pay personal debts.

Shabazz's lawyer Mr. Delroy Duncan called several character witnesses to the stand including former Opposition leader Mrs. Lois Browne Evans, Mrs. June Augustus of the Physical Abuse Centre and Mr. Harrison Simons.

Each testified that Shabazz was an honest and reliable individual who had extensive community involvement.

Acting principal probation officer Mr. Melvyn Simmons said Shabazz had experienced difficulty finding employment since his conviction and had to depend on his family.

Mr. Simmons suggested that 240 hours community service -- the maximum allowable under the law -- was appropriate for Shabazz since he had served a similar sentence when he was convicted in 1993 of stealing $121,000 from the Bank of Bermuda.

Mr. Duncan meantime, argued that Shabazz had already paid his debt to both the community and the bank. He was convicted on March 29, 1993, served three weeks in prison on remand and completed 240 hours of community service.

However he was exonerated on appeal which meant that the sentence was now null and void although Shabazz had already completed it.

Consequently, Mr. Duncan argued, since the current offences also involved the same victim, a reasonable sentence should not include imprisonment.

Furthermore he cited the lapse of time between the commission of the offences in 1990 and yesterday's court appearance, as one example of a special circumstance that mitigated in favour of a non-custodial sentence.

Additionally, Mr. Duncan said the adverse effects of the trial hanging over his client's head and his "extraordinary'' record of community service, also weighed the scales away from imprisonment.

But Crown Counsel, Mr. Brian Calhoun, rejected this argument and pointed out that most people who are in positions of trust have good characters and enviable community involvement.

However, this fact alone he said, cannot be used as a mitigating factor because it is this "purported trustworthiness'' that allows such people to be placed in positions of trust in the first place.

From there some "criminalise the very people who trust them''.

"I am not disputing anything that the character witnesses have said about Shabazz,'' Mr. Calhoun continued. "My only worry is the weight that this court should give to what they have said. I suggest it should be minimal.

There is nothing exceptional about Shabazz's good character. Most people in positions of trust have that already.'' Mr. Calhoun said Shabazz's cooperation with Police, his guilty plea and his clean record should earn him a custodial sentence of nine months. This he said was consistent with the sentencing practices locally in other similar cases.

But Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Meerabux, who admitted wrestling with what he called a "tragic case, involving a very able man with a promising career in banking'' insisted that Shabazz should have lived up to the level of trust reposed in him.

He then sentenced him to two months in jail.