Two young men have been remanded in custody for the next six weeks pending trial after Spice Valley Middle School was broken into.

Devonne Hodgson, 18, from Eastdale Lane in Warwick and Erin Richardson, 19, from Southampton are charged separately as well as together for breaking and entering the middle school in Warwick on various occasions.

Crown counsel, Anthony Blackman told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that Hodgson was charged with breaking into the school on January 16.

Hodgson pleaded guilty to this charge, but not guilty to a charge of wilfully damaging school property to the value of $1,500 on this occasion.

Mr. Blackman told the court that Hodgson had spray-painted a blackboard in a classroom and ripped a projector screen to shreds, as well as damaging equipment including a camera.

Hodgson is to appear in court on April 26 following a social inquiry report.

Richardson and Hodgson were charged together for allegedly breaking and entering into the school again on March 9 during which time a laptop was stolen. Both pleaded not guilty to this charge and will appear in court on May 12 for trial.

The two men pleaded not guilty to assaulting a man and stealing his motorcycle valued at $3,000 on February 18 this year and will appear in court on May 16 to stand trial in this matter.

To another charge of breaking and entering the school on March 10, both pleaded guilty.

Mr. Blackman told the court that the two were caught in the act by Police who responded to a school alarm shortly after 1 a.m. that day.

Lawyer, Llewellyn Peniston told the court that the two men were part of the growing constituency of “unemployable young men in Bermuda”.

Construction firm appeals ruling

A company accused of illegally operating industrial equipment on Devonshire Marsh took its fight to the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Rodrigues Trucking and Excavation Ltd. was denied an extension to the three month permit granted last year to use a large mechanical sand sifter and rock crusher at the site.

The company applied to the Environmental Authority in September to get the permits renewed, but was turned down on the ground that it had failed to operate the machinery within the hours specified in the original permit.

Legal arguments yesterday centred around the wording of the Clean Air Act, which requires all fixed and moveable - but not portable - industrial machinery to be licensed by the Ministry of the Environment.

Rodrigues' lawyer, Kim White, argued the machinery owned by Rodrigues, though large, is portable in that it can be “easily conveyed” to wherever it is required.

Portable machinery, Mr. White said, does not require licensing under current legislation and Mr. Rodrigues was therefore entitled to carry on using the equipment without governmental interference.

Appeals Court Judges Justice Edward Zacca, Justice Gerald Nazareth and Justice Sir Murray Stuart-Smith did not ask to hear the submissions of Crown counsel Sol Froomkin and will deliver their judgement today.

Controversy has plagued the company's work at the site since it began in 2001, when Planning officials and environmental organisations accused it of illegally dumping material on highly-valued agricultural land.

Company owner Paul Rodrigues claimed at the time the dumping was taking place on industrially zoned land - although reportedly he has since gone about restoring some of the land affected by the dumping of rubble and soil.