By Latrishka Thomas
A Gray’s Farm man was slapped with a $24,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition without the requisite licence.
The items were discovered when police executed a search warrant at a Gray’s Farm home on September 13. They found a black sock and a pouch under the building containing the gun and several different types of ammunition respectively.
Five individuals were arrested and charged.
On Tuesday, Orane Gordon, Shamika Joseph, Marvin Thomas, Dereef Willamson and Andrew Williamson appeared before St John’s Magistrates’ Court on the aforementioned charges.
Andrew Williamson, who is a security officer, was the only one of the five who admitted to the charges.
Police prosecutor Allan Honoré accepted the pleas of all the defendants, and released Gordon, Joseph, Thomas, and Dereef Williamson.
Andrew Williamson’s lawyer, Michael Archibald, mitigating on his behalf, claimed his client had found the items in a gutter in Gray’s Farm when going to a standpipe, and had taken them home and put them under the house.
Archibald argued that had the defendant intended the find for anything nefarious, “he would have found a better hiding place”.
The lawyer asked Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh to consider that his client also pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and to therefore impose a fine rather than a custodial sentence.
The 38-year-old Jamaican national was sentenced to pay $10,000 for possession of a Colt MK IV .380mm auto firearm; $4,000 for four .25mm auto ammunition; $1,000 for one .32 ammunition; $2,000 for two 16 gauge shot-gun cartridges; $2,000 for three .38 special ammunition and $5,000 for six .380mm ammunition.
He was ordered to pay $6,000 forthwith and $2,000 every month thereafter, but was given until April 2021 to make full payment.