A magistrate yesterday warned about the seriousness of signing bail for others after a man who put up security for a woman jewellery thief who fled abroad and avoided justice for six years.

Magistrates’ Court heard that Carlton DeSilva failed to keep track of Terry Rogers, who also faced the court yesterday.

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe said that people had lost thousands of dollars because they did not understand the responsibility that came with a bail guarantee.

He added: “You can’t go around signing bail for people you don’t know and for offences you don’t know about.”

Mr Wolffe was speaking after Carlton DeSilva, 70, escaped a potential $5,000 fine after he signed bail for Terry Rogers, 58, and failed to make sure that she appeared in court.

Rogers pleaded guilty in 2013 to the theft of $26,500 worth of silver cutlery and $22,320 worth of gold jewellery the year before from clients while she was employed as a housekeeper.

She was released on $5,000 bail and ordered to have someone sign for her bail.

Rogers was also ordered to return in January 2014 for sentencing, but she instead fled to the United States before she was due back in court.

Rogers returned to the island a month later but did not contact anyone and avoided court until she was found in September this year and arrested.

Mr DeSilva told the court yesterday that he agreed to sign Rogers’s bail after her cousin, a good friend, asked him for assistance.

He explained: “He told me she owed money and had been locked up.”

Mr DeSilva said that he did not know Rogers when he signed her bail, but added that he would “never have done that” if he knew what she had been charged with.

He added that he did not realise he would be responsible for making sure Rogers appeared in court.

Mr DeSilva said: “It was a stupid mistake on my part and I’m sorry.”

Rogers, originally from St George’s, told the court on September 3 that she used the money to get her son out of a US jail but also bought a car and gifts for her grandchildren.

Mr Wolffe adjourned the case for sentencing and ordered Rogers to undergo a social inquiry report.

He also released her on $10,000 bail and seized her passport.

Rogers was due to be sentenced yesterday, but the court heard that she was involved in “alternative courts” and awaited a drug assessment that could affect her sentence.

Mr Wolffe adjourned the case until October 27 and extended Rogers’s bail.

He also told Mr DeSilva: “Don’t sign surety ever again.”