Squatters beware! - $500 fine jumps to $500,000

Balford Henry, Senior Reporter

SQUATTERS AND praedial thieves beware!

The House of Repre-sentatives yesterday passed amendments to the Trespass Act increasing the fine for squatting from $500 to a whopping $1/2 million.

The House also amended Companion Acts increasing, twentyfold, fines for praedial larceny, trespassing (including cattle), destruction of trees, fences, electrical and telecommunications facilities, larceny of animals, selling goods retrieved from wrecked vessels and entering premises to hunt without licences.

The four companion Bills covering the fines - the Trespass, Larceny, Malicious Injuries to Property and Praedial Larceny (Prevention) Acts, were piloted by Minister of National Security and Justice, K.D. Knight.

Mr. Knight said that there were people who felt that the fine for squatting should have been increased to $1 million but, he explained, "it was moving in stages."

He said that his Ministry wanted to send a "clear message" that these activities are serious offences that would not be tolerated.

He said that later this year his Ministry would be reviewing the Larceny Act to create a comprehensive Theft Act, but something needed to be done, in the meantime.

He said that the cattle trespassing fines were also interim measures, as he would be returning to the House, shortly, with a separate Cattle Bill.

Opposition spokesman on Justice, Delroy Chuck, said that the JLP welcomed the amendments, but warned that without enforcement and swift justice the right signals would not be sent to potential offenders.

Mr. Chuck, referring to the case of a Montego Bay boy chopped by a gardener while stealing mangoes, said that while the boy was committing a crime, wounding him was also a crime. He asked for reasonableness in enforcing the laws.

He also suggested that since most people arrested for praedial larceny would be unable to pay the heavy fines, they be given alternative sentences, such as community service, instead of being sent to prison.

Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke, also expressed the view that for the increased fines to serve as deterrents, they must be enforced and justice administered swiftly. He said that it was the first time that praedial larceny and trespassing in agriculture were being taken seriously.

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