The long arm of the law finally caught up with a Bermudian student yesterday when she admitted dishonesty offences committed three years ago when she was 18 years old.

After escaping to the US in 2000, 21-year-old Marketa Raynor - wearing large sunglasses and a hat, apparently to conceal her identity - yesterday faced the music when she pleaded guilty before Magistrate Will Francis to eight charges.

She admitted stealing and fraudulently cashing two Bank Butterfield cheques which she took from Fresco's Express Deli in early September of 2000 where she worked as a waitress.

Raynor also readily pleaded guilty to breaking and entering a home where she stole an amount of cash on February 14 of the same year. Crown counsel Anthony Blackman revealed that Raynor had fraudulently obtained over $1,300 by inducing employees at a Hamilton firm and the Bank of Butterfield to cash the two cheques which she made out to herself for $483.96 and $873.98.

Using the stolen funds to pay for an airline ticket to the US, Raynor was able to escape arrest until last week, when she returned home in order to recuperate from a serious accident which had landed her in the intensive care unit of an Atlanta, Georgia hospital for 11 days.

Raynor told the court that she had become a qualified hairdresser and cosmetologist while she was off the island, but will be unable to hold a job for another month when she will have fully recovered from her injuries.

Raynor also claimed she has reconciled with the owners of the home in which she had broken into. Taking the defendant's age at the time of the crimes into consideration, as well as the three years since the offences, Mr. Francis said he had a difficult time determining how to sentence Raynor.

He finally decided to order a social inquiry report be carried out in order for a Social Services to determine the best way to proceed with the case. Raynor was freed with her bail set at $1,000 with a like surety, while a return date in September was set.

A Warwick woman was sentenced to three years of probation by a Magistrate yesterday after she admitted stealing more than $19,000 from her former employer.

Acting Senior Magistrate Will Francis handed down the sentence after Natasha Saltus, 25, plead guilty to misappropriating $19,342.79 from her place of work Colonial Insurance between June 7 last year and January 21 this year.

A mother of two, Saltus will also have to attend a parenting programme and undergo counselling, while also appearing in probation court every month. She was represented by lawyer Kim Wilson. Appearing for the prosecution was Crown Counsel Shakira Dill.

If you are planning to steal a motorcycle be warned - you could face three months stay at Westgate if caught. That was the message in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

“Cycle theft is far too prevalent.” Magistrate Will Francis said as he sentenced Wendell Tucker, 22, of Sandys Parish to three months in Westgate.

Mr. Francis went on to say: “I consider this a very serious offence. Everyone who has a cycle in Bermuda invariably has it taken. The courts should treat this type of offence very seriously and give a stiff sentence for cycle theft.”

Despite his proclamation that “I don't steal bikes” Wendell pleaded guilty to stealing a black Suzuki cycle from a Loyal Hill, Devonshire residence on the evening of July 24. But Tucker denied a second charge that he assaulted a police officer on the same night when he was arrested on Vesey Street in Devonshire.

Wendell told Mr. Francis that he had decided to take the bike after a family member's cycle had been stolen. “I saw it had the same wheels as my cousin's bike,” Tucker said. He was adamant that the wheels of the black Suzuki were from his cousin's stolen cycle.

At one point Tucker even offered to return the cycle, which he claims he still has, in return for a lesser sentence - but made it very clear that he was going to keep the tyres.

But Mr. Francis was not to be swayed as he handed down the three month prison sentence to an angry Tucker who had to be calmed down by a police officer who was present in the court.

This is not the first occasion that Mr. Francis has voiced his concern over increasing number of cycle thefts on the island, which he has blamed for the sharp increase in rates charged to insure motorcycles.

Tucker will be tried in Magistrates' court for assaulting a police officer in mid-August.

The taxpayer will have to foot the $2,000 bill for a deportee's one way ticket to Jamaica.

Elton Henry, 25, who is originally from Kingston, Jamaica has been illegally residing in Bermuda for over ten months.

Henry had arrived July 30, 2002 and has evaded immigration inspectors since his permitted to stay for 21 days expired.

Acting Senior Magistrate Will Francis said that Henry had overstayed his welcome but said that Bermuda will have to pay his way back home. “He apparently has some money on him,” said Mr. Francis. “But there is no way he can pay a ticket costing $1,987.”

Mr. Francis remanded Henry custody where he will await deportation.