A Pembroke man who attempted to obtain $25,000 from Seahorses betting shop by using a false betting slip was given a two-year probation order in Magistrates’ Court this morning.

At a previous court appearance on June 20 last year, Dashae Simons, 26, pleaded not guilty to one count of creating a false instrument, namely a betting slip, a second count of using a false instrument and a third count of attempting to obtain $25,000 from Seahorses by falsely representing that a betting slip was legitimate on April 23 last year.

At a court appearance on February 27, he pleaded guilty to the third count and the Crown indicated that it would offer no evidence on the first two counts.

A social inquiry report was ordered at that time.

In court today, Magistrate Archibald Warner took into account the submissions by defence lawyer Charles Richardson and prosecutor Takiyah Burgess, as well as the report, and sentenced Simons to two years’ probation. The order was granted on the conditions that Simons abstain from the use of alcohol and illicit drugs, submit to drug testing, be assessed for and attend any programmes deemed necessary by court services, including the Thinking for a Change programme, and appear before the courts on July 8 for review.

Also in court, 25-year-old Malik Cann, of Pembroke, admitted dishonestly obtaining $178.59 by cashing a cheque that did not belong to him in Pembroke on October 19, 2013.

However, he pleaded not guilty to stealing the cheque on October 18, 2013, and making a false Bank of Butterfield cheque between October 18 and 19, 2013, and the Crown offered no evidence on those counts.

Mr Warner ordered Cann to continue with a two-year probation order that was issued in July last year for another matter.

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