A journalist was released on bail yesterday after pleading guilty in Magistrates? Court to 24 counts of stealing, forging and uttering eight cheques in recent months.

Patrick Myron Bean, 38, of Lapsley Lane, Sandys, told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner he stole nearly $13,000 from his father and from the Bermuda Sun to feed a cocaine addiction. Bean is also a former Royal Gazette sports reporter.

Crown counsel Anthony Blackman said that between July 2 and 5, Bean stole his father?s cheque book, when a housesitter was responsible for the home. ?Bean entered the residence, went through drawers, saw cheques, and took them,? Mr. Blackman said.

Later, when Mr. Bean returned home, someone from the Bank of Butterfield called to ask about the cheques. Bean later admitted stealing, forging and cashing three cheques valued at $500, $725 and $950 between June 3 and 17.

Police were called in to investigate and Bean later told Police he ?committed the crimes to satisfy his drug habit,? Mr. Blackman said.

Mr. Blackman said that Bean stole $107 from petty cash and three Bank of Butterfield cheques of $950, $2,500 and $3,000 from the Bermuda Building Services Company from July 2 to 5.

While still employed at the Bermuda Sun he stole two Bank of Bermuda cheques that he forged and cashed for $1,225 and $2,700.

Bean had been in custody since July 7. He had no lawyer. Bean asked if he could be a candidate for drug court. Mr. Warner ordered a Social Inquiry Report and a Bermuda Assessment Referrals Centre report.

Bean said he lived in a property bordering his parent?s home for which he ?infrequently paid rent?. Bean was granted bail if a surety of $1,000 could be provided. Bean said that his mother was in court yesterday, which he did not expect. Mr. Warner asked Bean if that was to see him locked up or not, but Bean made no reply.

Policeman and National team cricketer Dennis Ricardo Archer will return to court in August after a trial for assaulting a woman was aborted when Magistrate Carlisle Greaves admitted he knew the couple.

A leading strike bowler slated to start in today?s match against the United States in the Inter-Continental Cup, Archer, 41, denied assaulting Jacqueline Jackson and casing her actual bodily harm. The alleged incident took place on July 18, 2003 at Archer?s Devonshire home.

Mr. Greaves informed the court that he knew Archer and Ms Jackson well and that he may be accused of being bias by trying the case. He said that no other Magistrate was available and adjourned the trial until August 13.

A Gosling Brother?s warehouse manager was fined and given a suspended sentence yesterday after he was found guilty of assaulting two Police officers during a routine traffic stop.

Don Stanley Wilson, 32, had the physical and financial support during his trial of his employers, Nancy and Charles Gosling. The Gosling?s reportedly paid for Wilson?s fines totalling $2,500.

Mr. Greaves added that he gave some credit to the fact that Wilson was responsible in the realm of family, and work. He also pointed out that Wilson carried a clean record.

Mr. Greaves said: ?I usually do not struggle with sentences but I am struggling with this. I am struggling to get over the fact that a man could be so brazen. This was not a mistake, and not an accident ? the only conclusion I can come to is that it was deliberate.?

Lawyer Mark Pettingill told the court the incident was completely out of his character.Wilson was sentenced to nine months suspended for two years for knocking down Insp. Steven Donnelly with a motorcycle and he received the same sentence for knocking down Pc. Shannon Swan in the same manner.

He was also fined $1,000 for each assault charge and $500 for violently resisting arrest on March 5, on Parsons Road, Pembroke.

Wilson alleges that the Police took him off his bike, cuffed him and then beat him in a Police van. He has made a formal complaint of the alleged beating to the Commissioner of Police but it is understood that it is still under investigation.

Crown counsel Wayne Caines gave a summary of the incident saying that Police had formed a road block, wearing reflective vests and carrying flash lights, when Wilson failed to stop and knocked two officers to the ground with his motorcycle.

Wilson then proceeded to violently resist arrest, said Mr. Caines, and the officers sustained minor injuries from the incident. Mr. Caines said that incident had to be seen as a serious one and that Magistrate Carlisle Greaves should ?do what is in the best interest of society?.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner threw out the trespassing case against a man who was visiting his mother, saying George Andrew Simons ?never should have been arrested?.

Simons was arrested twice over the weekend after visiting his mother at her rented apartment on West Park Lane, Pembroke.

The landlady of Simon?s mother wrote a letter to her tenant to keep her son away from her home. At Court yesterday the landlady?s daughter said her mother was 83-years-old and alleged that Simons had ?become abusive and threatening? to her mother she said.

Mr. Warner told this woman that her ?mother had entered into a contractual relationship and that her tenant had certain rights. She can not allow who should come onto the property,? he said.

Mr. Warner said he ?was not encouraging offensive or abusive behaviour? but ?in relation to the reason why (Simons) was arrested and charged before the court it was an illegal way of doing it?, he said.

He said that the only way that Simons could be arrested for trespassing would be if Simon?s mother had written a letter saying that she did not want her son to be on her property. It did not count that the landlady wrote a letter saying that she did not want the son to be on her property.

Mr. Warner told Simons that if he went to his mother?s home and was abusive or committed an offence he could be arrested.

?If the allegations are true,? Mr. Warner said, ?I am not condoning your behaviour, but it seems to me on the facts heard, you had no right to be arrested or brought before the court?, he said.

The landlady was represented by Leo Mills. Before letting Simons go he advised Police ?not to arrest him again like they did on Friday night and Saturday morning?.

Probation is the likely sentence to be handed down today for a Sandys man who has admitted stealing tools valued over $2,000.

Troy T. Smith, 38 of Heathcote Drive pleaded guilty before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner to stealing a Makita drill worth $800 in Warwick on June 29.

Crown counsel Anthony Blackman said the tool was at the home of the drill?s owner, when Smith saw the tool, took it and stole it to feed his drug addiction. Smith yesterday admitted to stealing several tools worth $380 on June 30 including a Makita palm sander, plane, belt sander and Craftsman jigsaw and stealing a DeValt Drill case worth $1000 on the same day.

Mr. Blackman said the owner of the drill case parked outside Lindo?s supermarket but did not lock his truck. Smith took the tool out of the truck but Police were later informed. Mr. Warner remanded Smith until today, to await full reports on Smith?s background. Mr. Warner also said he wanted Smith to pay back the people he stole tools from.

He added that in some jurisdictions stealing the tools a man used for his livelihood was so serious they would ?cut off his hand?.