Window cleaner found guilty of stealing foreign money from client

Wednesday 02 February 2022

A 32-year-old window cleaner has been found guilty of climbing through the window of a house he was working on and stealing foreign money.

Gilberto De Sousa Fernandes was found guilty by a jury in the Royal Court this morning. Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae was presiding.

Prosecuting, Advocate Rebecca Morley-Kirk told the court on Monday that Fernandes had climbed through the bathroom window and stolen foreign exchange money from a St. Lawrence property he was working on, after his boss had left him on his own to use a nearby public toilet.

She said that the homeowner had come home early and had thought the cleaners were still there, as the ladder leading up to the bathroom window was still out, although nobody was on it.

She explained that when he walked in, he said he had heard a "thud", which the Crown said was Mr Fernandes "interrupted by [the home owner] arriving back unexpectedly."

She cited DNA expert Emma Howes' calculation there was "very strong support" that Fernandes' DNA could be on a cloth that was found in the home by the homeowners afterwards.

Defending Fernandes, Advocate Francesca Pinel argued there was "nowhere near strong enough" evidence.

During the trial, she questioned whether there was enough time for Mr Fernandes to come in the house and exit back out the window and down the ladder, all without leaving fingerprints, and no witnesses noticing - despite there being a main road outside.

"It may be that you think that simply would not have been possible," she remarked.

She also queried whether the jury could be sure it was his DNA on the cloth, noting that though DNA analyst had said it would be 21,000 times more likely to be his DNA on the cloth than not, this was on a range of possibility of above a million.

The charge initially was that he had stolen $1,140 and €700 - this morning the Deputy Bailiff gave a direction that the jury "need to be satisfied that a quantity of money was stolen, but you do not need to be satisfied that all the money alleged in the count was stolen."

Today, the jury found him guilty after four hours and eighteen minutes of deliberation.

Fernandes is remanded in custody, and will reappear in the Royal Court to fix a sentencing date on Friday.

Following the trial, Detective Constable James Fowler said: "This offence demonstrates a blatant breach of trust from Fernandes.

"He was trusted to carry out his work but when left alone at the property, he clearly had other ideas on that day.

"He acted dishonestly and deceived his client."