A taxi driver who allegedly had in his possession a firearm and ammunition was remanded to prison yesterday when he appeared before Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Twenty-eight-year-old Timothy St Hill of 337 Diamond New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, pleaded not guilty to the charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

It is alleged that on October 25 at East La Penitence, St Hill without lawful authority had in his possession a .38 revolver and two rounds of .38 ammunition without being the holder of a valid firearm licence.

However St Hill’s Lawyer, Adrian Thompson, stated that on the day in question the firearm was not found on his client but in a gutter that he was passing and that should be a special circumstance in which his client should be granted bail.

However Prosecutor Sherwin Mathews objected to the bail application on the grounds that a police patrol was in the area carrying out a stop and search exercise on several individuals and when they approached St Hill in that regard he took out the gun from his pants waist and threw it into a gutter.

Mathews noted that the gutter was about six inches deep and  the police immediately retrieved  the gun from there.

The prosecution also posited that this type of offence was not bailable unless special circumstances arose and in this case none had.

Thompson then stated that it was strange that the police only charged his client yesterday when the incident had occurred since Saturday and  it simply indicated that the firearm did not belong to St Hill.
Mathews then explained that the police were seeking advice and after it was obtained the charges were brought against St Hill.

The magistrate then ordered that St Hill be remanded to prison and transferred his case to Court Five for November 6.