By Latrishka Thomas
A Liberta teen was spared from paying a possible $14,000 fine after he admitted to being in possession of 471 grams of cannabis in the St John’s Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Acting Chief Magistrate Dexter Wason was lenient with 18-year-old Rico Carr, a first-time offender, and only fined him $5,000 for the drugs which were said to be worth $4,710.
On March 25, police went to the defendant’s Table Hill Gardens home armed with a search warrant in his mother’s name.
The officers found both the defendant and his mother at the residence, identified themselves, showed the warrant and then searched the premises.
While searching, they found a substance resembling cannabis hanging on a clothes line in a room.
When asked about it, the mother told the police it was her son’s weed. The defendant then admitted ownership.
Carr, along with the drugs, was taken to Liberta police station where the drugs were weighed in his presence.
They amounted to 471 grams.
Magistrate Wason indicated that typically an offender would be fined $14,130 for that amount of weed but said, “if I fine you what I should, I’m pretty sure you will end up in jail or I’ll be penalising your whole family”.
He therefore only fined the youngster a little over a third of the possible amount and gave him one month to pay the monies into the court.
If Carr does not pay the fine on time, he will spend three months behind bars.