A Sandys man who admitted a series of dishonesty charges was yesterday jailed for 21 months.

Jahroy Simons, 27, pleaded guilty yesterday to five counts of receiving stolen cheques and another five counts of using the stolen cheques to obtain cash and goods from the Bermuda Financial Network and the MarketPlace.

He made the admissions just prior to being sentenced for two other dishonesty offences — dishonestly obtaining $8,000 from Butterfield Bank in April 2012 and attempting to dishonestly obtain more cash from the same bank days later.

Simons initially denied those charges and had gone to trial, but changed his plea to guilty in December as the trial neared completion.

The court heard that in October, 2013, police were called to the Bermuda Financial Network offices regarding a separate matter.

While there, officers were shown a pair of cheques made out to Simons from a bank account of a WE Kennedy.

Staff told police the account did not have the funds required to cover the cheques — valued at $400 and $280 — and as a result the bank had taken the sum from the company’s account.

On October 29 police were contacted by the book-keeper at the MarketPlace on Victoria Street who had received three cheques that week made out to Simons from the same WE Kennedy account valued at $300, $275 and $290.

On each of the cheques, the cheque number had been altered.

Police were told that on October 23, 24 and 28, Simons attended the store and used the cheques to pay for groceries and receive cash.

Officers contacted the owner of the cheques, an 85-year-old man, who denied writing the cheques or knowing Simons.

He told the court he had last used his chequebook earlier in the year and left it in a drawer in his home.

Simons was subsequently arrested, and during a police interview admitted using the stolen cheques.

Prosecutor Susan Mulligan noted that Simons had already been convicted of several offences including dishonesty, calling for a sentence of six months in prison for the 2012 matters and between 12 and 18 months for the 2013 matters.

“It was an 85-year-old man that the cheques belonged to, and the managers at MarketPlace had to pay out of their pockets for this,” she said. “He knew the cheques were unlawful and that he had been convicted of this before.”

Defence lawyer Auralee Cassidy told the court that Simons was deeply sorry for his actions and would be willing to repay those who had lost out if given the opportunity.

However Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said based on Simons’ work history — or lack thereof — he doubted the defendant would be able to make good on such an offer.

Simons himself apologised to the court and to Mr Kennedy, saying he had trusted that the cheques were legitimate because of his kind-hearted nature.

Mr Tokunbo sentenced Simons to nine months in prison for the 2012 charges — nine months for dishonestly obtaining property and six months for attempting to do the same, with both sentences running concurrently.

He further sentenced the defendant to 12 months in prison for each of the ten 2013 charges, ordering that the sentences to be served concurrently to one another but consecutive to the aforementioned nine-month sentence.