-- for just $400 -- had to dig a lot deeper into his pockets after pleading guilty in Magistrates' Court to receiving stolen property.

Joseph F. Moniz was fined $1,000 and handed a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, by Senior Magistrate William Francis who warned him: "If you steal so much as pencil (in the next two years) you'll be going to prison.'' Moniz was also slapped with an additional $980 in fines after pleading guilty to speeding and driving an uninsured and unlicensed cycle.

Prosecutor Sgt. Phil Taylor told the Court the bike was stolen from outside a Pembroke residence in early April last year. Nearly one year later -- on the evening of February 20 -- Moniz was pulled over on the bike for speeding on Parson's Road in Pembroke.

At that time Police discovered false plates had been put on the cycle. Moniz then admitted to investigators he'd purchased the bike from an unknown male for $400 and knew it had been stolen.

"I'm 24-years-old and it's on my conscience. I was trying to cheat life by buying parts for cheaper than it is,'' Moniz told Mr. Francis.

"Seems like you don't understand the seriousness of it,'' replied Mr.

Francis. "Do you realise there are people out there who think the only sentence for cycle theft is prison? And what about this person who lost a cycle he'd paid $3,300 for.'' Moniz responded he'd never stolen the cycle, only bought it after the fact for parts. He then told Mr. Francis: "I've seen this system; I've been in front of you since I was 16. I've seen cops lie in the next courtroom and now I've got a job and I just want to get this behind me.'' Sgt. Taylor urged the court to consider the real costs of cycle theft: "It's costing everyone on the Island through lost money, time, and raising insurance rates. Mr. Moniz is allowing cycle theft to take place by creating a marketplace for the crime.'' Moniz, who has been before the Courts on related cycle-theft charges, was also fined $980 for other driving offences.