Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Marvin Lee Woolridge, 29, of Loyal Hill Pass in Devonshire, pleaded guilty to stealing from visitors cash, cameras, jackets, swimsuits, a towel, and a watch worth in total $5,441.

He admitted he grabbed bags from visitors' bikes as he rode beside them.

Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis, who had requested a social inquiry report, sentenced Woolridge to three months in prison, but suspended the sentence for two years. He also fined Woolridge $200 for each of six theft convictions.

"This purse snatching from visitors is very, very serious, in my view,'' Mr.

Francis said.

Woolridge had told the court he stole because he had to pay off a drug dealer who threatened his life. He had since turned his life around and was studying criminal justice at a school in South Carolina, he said.

But the probation officer who prepared the social inquiry report could not substantiate this, or other claims made by Woolridge, Mr. Francis said. "She found you to be a smooth talker,'' but when she contacted the school in the US, "they didn't seem to know anything about you.'' Mr. Francis gave Woolridge, who asked the court to spare him a prison term, until the end of January to pay his fines.

Police recovered about $3,500 worth of Woolridge's loot. When Woolridge pleaded guilty in November, Police prosecutor Insp. Peter Duffy said his crimes "struck at the very heart of one of the prime industries of Bermuda.''