Teens given probation after stealing tourist’s backpack

Two teenagers who stole a bag from a tourist at Horseshoe Bay this summer were given probation after being remanded for two months.

Enico Durrant, 19, and Frank Herbert, 19, were charged in August with stealing a tourist's backpack containing three passports and cash at the popular beach.

Mr Durrant pleaded guilty while Mr Herbert initially denied the charge. He pleaded guilty last month.

Today, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner took time to sentence the men, listening to what Crown counsel Susan Mulligan had to say along with Durrant’s lawyer Peter Farge and duty counsel Saul Dismont.

Sentencing the defendants, Mr Warner said: “Having considered all the circumstances including the sentencing regime, the mitigation by counsel, the reports and in particular, the position of the Crown on sentence, the appropriate sentence is two years probation and conditional discharge.”

In the first hearing, the court heard complainant Howard Arendt arrived in Bermuda on August 19 on the Explorer of the Seas in Dockyard.

He went to the beach with his family that day and left his backpack with his sister while he went swimming.

At 11:30am the same day, police received a report of two males trying to steal a tourist’s backpack on the beach.

When they attended the beach, the senior lifeguard told them he was informed of two young men “acting suspiciously” and had warned the other lifeguards and park rangers.

The lifeguard said he watched Mr Herbert go into the water and ten minutes later, he walked over to where Durrant was standing.

The court heard Durrant grabbed Mr Arendt’s backpack and both men ran away from the scene. They were caught in the vicinity.

Both men were arrested when the police arrived and taken to the Hamilton Police Station.

In an interview, Durrant told officers he and Mr Herbert went to the beach to steal that day.

He said his mother had told him he couldn’t come back home unless he gave her $100 and he needed the money.