by Linda Straker
- Senator St Clair pleased Praedial Larceny Fund finally established
- Accounting distribution created to record fines connected with Act
- Affected producers can file a claim against Fund
Roderick St Clair, who represents the farming and agriculture communities in the Upper House of Parliament, is delighted to learn that the Dickon Mitchell administration established the Praedial Larceny Fund 18 years after the law went into effect.
The 2005 Praedial Larceny Act provides for establishing the fund with money collected from people convicted in the Magistrate Court of violations, including but not limited to people who steal, destroy, or damage gardens or intend to steal any plant, root, fruit, or vegetable produce growing in any garden, orchard, pleasure ground, nursery ground, hothouse, or greenhouse.
The 18-year-old legislation also applies to people who steal, destroy, or damage with intent to steal, any cultivated plant, root, fruit, or vegetable produce used for the food of man or beast or for medicine, or for the distilling, or for dyeing, or for in the course of any manufacture, and growing in any land, open or enclosed, not being a garden, orchard, pleasure-ground, or nursery-ground.
Also, for those who maliciously root up, destroy or damage any tree, plant, root, fruit, vegetable, or other produce which is used or is capable of being used, whether after treatment or otherwise, as food or as an ingredient in food for man or beast as well as those who dishonestly receives praedial produce.
St Clair initially filed the question about the status of the Fund in October 2022. A formal answer was provided during the 5 May 2023 sitting of the Upper House, approximately 7 months after the question was submitted.
Senator Adrian Thomas, the leader of Government Business in the Upper House, provided the update in response to a follow-up question about the status of the Fund. “We have received information from the Accountant General (Acting) in the Ministry of Finance. It says, please be advised that an accounting distribution was created for the Praedial Larceny Fund. This will facilitate the recording for fines collected at the magistrate court for fines connected with the Praedial Larceny Act,” Thomas told the House.
“As it stands with the Praedial Larceny Fund, I will say thank God it is established. That is a hope for our farmers now that they know the funds can go there instead of getting tied up in the Consolidated Fund. That is a very good day for us and we want to congratulate the Government,” Senator St Clair said in response to Senator Thomas’ update.
It is understood that establishing the account for the Praedial Larceny Fund is one of the last initiatives achieved by Finance Minister Dickon Mitchell before he gave up that portfolio on 31 March 2023.
Producers affected by Praedial Larceny can now file a claim once the accused is found guilty and charged a fine.
