Getaway car rider evades jail

(CNS): A teenager originally charged with armed robbery was released from jail last week and given a two year probation order, having been convicted of handling stolen goods, despite being apprehended in the getaway vehicle that fled the scene of a robbery. Ordain Lloyd Ebanks was one of four men pursued in a high profile police chase involving the RCIPS helicopter and patrol car following a daylight heist at Chisholm’s supermarket in North Side last September. However, prosecutors went on to drop the armed robbery charges and accepted a plea from the 18-year-old for handling after he admitted touching a packet of cigarettes, which he threw out of car window during the chase.

The plea caused controversy in the court room however, when the original Grand Court judge in the case refused to accept the lesser plea because of previous information supplied by the crown regarding the case as a finding of fact that Ebanks was by no means an innocent by-stander who just happened to get a lift with the robbery getaway driver. Ebanks claimed he only learned about the crime when handed a packet of stolen cigarettes in the vehicle and when he learned they were stolen he threw them out of the car.

During the sentencing of the main protagonist in the daylight hold-up, Courtney Bryan, Justice Charles Quin heard that Ebanks was one of two men who entered the North Side store less than fifteen minutes before the robbery and that he had purchased a patty –  described as “casing the joint” in the judge’s sentencing ruling.

A few weeks later when he was presented with Ebanks’ plea for a far lesser offence and claims that he was no longer being charged with having anything to do with the planning or execution of the armed heist, Justice Quin raised his concerns. The judge pointed out that there could not be two different sets of facts about the same event and took the crown to task over the change. He later made the decision to pass the case to another member of the judiciary as he said he was conflicted over the crown’s renewed position.

As a result it was left to Justice Alex Henderson to deal with the sentencing of the lesser offence, and despite the suspicions he raised about Ebanks’ possible greater involvement, he gave the teenager a two year probations order to include a twelve month curfew between 10pm and 6am. Ebanks had already served six months in HMP Northward on remand. He is now the third person convicted and sentenced in the case, in which four men were arrested.

Bryan, who was considered the ring leader and the man who entered the store and stole cash, jewellery, a phone and cigarettes in what was considered a violent robbery, armed with an imitation handgun, received a four year jail term. Then 29-year-old Ian Fernado Ellington received a two year sentence after he was convicted of accessory after the fact as a result of being the getaway drive.

Although he too had originally been charged with robbery, as the crown suspected he was the second man in the store with Ebanks, prosecutors were later to offer no evidence that he did any more than pick up the robbers without knowing what they had done or being part of the plan.  However, he was at the wheel during the high profile chase, which was recorded on the RCIPS Air Support Unit video.

Just one of the four people arrested now remains to be dealt with and he is theyoungest member of the four arrested in East End when the pursuit finally ended. The 16-year-old admitted his part in the robbery following the arrest but has always denied having a gun.

However, the crown is continuing to pursue that case against the youngster and as a result he will face trial later this month on that one count.