Chad Bryan, Staff Reporter
The stealing of school books appears to have increased among books stores within the Corporate Area.
Last Wednesday, two persons were hauled before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in relation to the theft of Oxford dictionaries. The thefts happened at a prominent bookstore in St Andrew.
In one of the incidents, a woman who has four children was sentenced to 50 hours of community service. In the other incident, security personnel chased the man from the bookstore down to the Half Way Tree Transport Centre where he was arrested and charged. He pleaded not guilty and will stand trial on January 8.
Back to school
The store manager from one of the book stores that was affected by the stealing explained that there is an increase in the theft of books at the store.
"They [people] have always been stealing books. It is not just back to school. It has always been a nuisance. We have security but people will always find ingenious ways of stealing the books," the representative said.
She continued that the books are only returned when persons are caught and at the end of court cases.
President of the Book Industry Association of Jamaica Franklyn McGibbon is aware of this problem but was uncertain whether there was increase.
McGibbon pointed to a scenario in which a woman hid over 30 small literature books under her dress.
McGibbon explained that one steps to prevent the theft of these smaller more popular books are to keep them over the counter.
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