He told he’d fix her laptop computer, but when he never brought it back, she said he stole it – and because of that 50 year old Frank Conorquie could spend a year in jail. But first, he’ll have a month to compensate school teacher Vernadette Bailey five-thousand dollars for her computer, and pay the court a one thousand dollar fine and if he doesn’t, Conorquie will serve a year in jail.

He’s remanded to prison tonight because he was unable to get someone to sign a bond guaranteeing that he’ll pay the five thousand dollars in compensation. Conorquie was convicted of theft by Chief Magistrate Margaret Mackenzie who ordered him to pay $500 a month in compensation.

Bailey claims she gave Conorquie her computer to fix 13 months ago on the understanding that he would return it to her in two days. Over a year has passed, and he still has not returned the computer. He claims he gave it to a friend at a local computer company and that person has disappeared.

Interestingly, Conorquie has a charge of a similar nature pending – for the alleged theft of a cell phone he was also supposed to fix. That will go to trial next week.