A man who told the court that he stole various food items from his former employers, to bake a birthday cake for his daughter, was fined $50,000 or six months in prison for the offence.

Jermain Mason of a Kingston address pleaded guilty, with explanation, when he was charged with simple larceny in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

According to reports, Mason, who was employed to Caribbean Products Company Limited (CPCL), had attempted to leave the company's premises with one case of shortening and three cases of Gold Seal Butter, valued at approximately $13,000, which he allegedly stole from the company's storage.

Mason told the court the items that he removed were, to his knowledge, expired.

"I assumed the boxes with the products in the storage, which are held there, are rejected and expired and to be dumped, I was taking them to give my mother to bake a cake for my daughter's birthday," he said.

suspension

Representatives from CPCL told the court that Mason was caught by security while conducting routine vehicular checks on the premises.

One of the representatives also stated that Mason was recently suspended from the company because of bad behaviour.

"He is not a good worker. He just came back from three weeks' suspension. We feel that he took the items to sell to make up for the lost time."

Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey asked the accused, "If it was expired, you would really use that to make cake to feed your baby?"

He was subsequently fined.