Rommel Sofia sentenced to two years, fined $2k
Failure to pay the fine means that he would spend an additional four months in jail. The sentences handed down by Magistrate Ayana Baptiste-DaBreo were subject to the discount provision which can be applied when someone pleads guilty and makes restritution of funds stolen, as Sofia has done.
In addition, the custodial sentences take effect from Sofia’s first date of being placed on remand, which would be July 2, 2015.
The Magistrate ordered that the sum of $24,975.37 – the amount that Sofia stole from his employer Island Services Limited – be paid back in full and that a quantity of jewellery allegedly acquired from the proceeds of the crime be forfeited to the Crown.
Remorseful
The court heard on December 3, 2015 during the mitigation argument of Sofia’s attorney Valerie Stephens-Gordon that since his arrest on July 1, 2015 Sofia had been full of remorse over his crime. She said that while he had initially denied the accusations, he later admitted to the crime during a police interview.
Sofia was later charged with theft, false accounting and concealing and transferring proceeds of a criminal nature. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him.
In her mitigation argument, Stephens-Gordon said that other than that period where she said something “possessed” her client, there had been no indication of any wrong doing from 2009 to 2015 as an employee of Island Services Limited.
Stephens-Gordon asked for leniency in sentencing as her client did not commit the offences of false accounting and transferring proceeds of the crime to the Philippines over a sustained period but over a brief period of six weeks beginning April 1, 2015 and ending May 15, 2015.
“He indicated a desire to pay back the funds in full. His parents did the transfer of funds in full totalling $24,975.37 to cover the money taken from Island Services. We are asking the court to take this into consideration when sentencing. He understands that it is a very serious offence... a serious breach of trust and he deeply regrets breaching the trust that Ms [Nelda] Farrington placed in him by committing the acts,” she said. Stephens-Gordon also held up the cheque which had been prepared in the name of the Accountant General for the amount to be repaid to the Crown.
Attorney Stephens-Gordon said Sofia’s guilty plea is a genuine one and as such she asked for the 1/3 credit be applied in sentencing and that this should be applied not to the maximum sentence possible for such crimes.
“I am asking the court to consider time spent [since] he has been incarcerated since July 2, 2015. We are asking the court not to impose a sentence that will be a strain on the public purse,” pleaded Stephens-Gordon.
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15 Responses to “Rommel Sofia sentenced to two years, fined $2k”
the man out of all order, robbing the poor lady over 20k in the short space of one month... enjoy the view from our jail house