Taxi man implicated in million-dollar cable theft

A taxi operator will spend another month in custody before he knows his fate, after pleading guilty to the theft of almost $13 million worth of copper cable wires belonging to telecommunications company FLOW.

It was shared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court that on July 29 at 4:36 a.m., police emergency received information regarding men stealing wires on Hope Boulevard in St Andrew. Reports state that upon the arrival of the police, they saw two men putting copper cable wires into the trunk of a Toyota Probox, one of whom was the defendant, Dalkeith Facey. The police approached the men, one of whom ran, while Facey went into his vehicle and sped away, but later collided into a wall along Waterworks. He was later apprehended. The wires found in his vehicle are said to value $12,865,000.

"On that day, I was forced to carry some individuals not wires," Facey explained, after pleading guilty to simple larceny.

"I am not acquainted with those individuals. I run taxi," he shared with Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque. Facey said a friend called him and said "Me wah yuh drop three person right yah suh fi me".

"So even for your own safety, you never thought it prudent, you never thought it sensible and wise to get a name of the men you were carrying?" the judge probed.

"No, it never flash through my mind," Facey replied. Facey said that when he went to pick up the men, he saw them placing the wires in the trunk.

"I saw them putting the wires in the trunk and me say me nuh deh pon that. So I exited my vehicle and started taking the wires out of the trunk. That's when me hear a man say 'Police, police' and run off," Facey related.

But his account contradicts the police's statement that identifies him as one of the men putting the wires in the vehicle.

"Your Honour, I am struggling financial wise. That's why me tell dem say me nuh deh pon weh dem deh pon. Me tell dem me nuh wah nuh wire inna me car," Facey said, adding that he accepted the charter job as it would pay $15,000. Facey then shared that he is on bail on charges of rape and abduction. That matter will be mentioned in court next April.

"A now the struggle a guh get harder. Not to sound insensitive but it's just the truth. When people are offered bail by the court, they should walk the straight and narrow," Judge Cole-Montaque warned, noting that Facey will have to remain behind bars.

He was made the subject of a fingerprint order and remanded in custody until October 12 for sentencing.

- T.T.