By Latrishka Thomas
A $500 fine was given to a 19-year-old Ottos man who pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation gun without satisfactory reason.
Ricardo Clarke pleaded guilty to the offence before Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh on September 23, and returned yesterday for sentencing.
On September 21, officers on mobile patrol duty in town were travelling from south to north on Tindale Road when the defendant was seen standing by a wall acting in a suspicious manner with a waist bag in his hand.
The officers stopped and approached the young man who threw the bag on the ground. They then told him that they suspected him of having drugs in his possession and asked to search him.
Nothing illegal was found on his person but what appeared to be a firearm was found inside the bag on the ground.
The police asked him who the gun belonged to and he did not respond.
They then arrested him and took him and the item to the police station.
The firearm was examined and it was discovered to be a grey and black BB gun.
When asked about the fake gun, Clarke said, “me find the gun when me min dey a work”.
He told the Chief Magistrate the same when asked yesterday. He however added that it was found on a farm where he works.
If Clarke, a Jamaican national, fails to pay the fine, he will have to spend a month behind bars.
Meanwhile, also appearing before the Chief Magistrate yesterday was 43-year-old Clayton Grant who allegedly beat his girlfriend with a hammer. His case was sent up to the High Court to be tried in the January assizes. The alleged offence occurred on October 8, 2019 at Grant’s Villa home.
The accused is believed to have come home drunk to meet his then girlfriend and her son in the early hours of the morning.
The complainant reportedly told him that she did not like the fact that he does not come home on weekends and inquired into his whereabouts.
It is alleged that an argument erupted and then turned into a fight. The woman was reportedly choked and hit about her body with a hammer.
Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh committed the matter yesterday after the prosecution tendered five pieces of evidence.
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