Miner, city constable in court on ganja charge

Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry remanded a miner and sentenced a City Constable to community service after they both appeared in court charged with possession of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.

Thirty-nine-year-old miner Winston Peters, of Lot 97 West Front Road, was on Thursday remanded to prison for allegedly having 31 grammes of cannabis in his possession for the purpose of trafficking. He denied the charge when it was read to him in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Police Prosecutor Bharat Mangru said that on December 10, at Seven Miles Mahdia, police on patrol searched Peters and found a white plastic bag containing what they suspected to be cannabis in his pocket. The substance was weighed and amounted to 31 grammes. Peters was subsequently arrested and charged.

His attorney Paul Fung-a-Fat, disputed the police’s version of what transpired and declared that the police saw a group of men and they all ran away leaving Peters behind.

He then asked the court to grant his client bail.

However, the prosecutor objected to bail stating that no special reasons were given.

Peters was subsequently remanded and ordered to appear in the Bartica Magistrate’s Court on January 14, 2014. City Constable Jermaine Fenty, of Lot 39 D’Urban Street Lodge, also appeared before Chief Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry on Thursday where he was fined $3,000 along with six months community service after pleading guilty to possession.

Police Prosecutor Bharat Mangru told the court that on December 11 at 9.40pm, police ranks on patrol at the ferry stelling in the Stabroek area found Fenty rolling cannabis in preparation to be smoked. Fenty was then cautioned, arrested and charged.

Fenty did not dispute the allegation put forward by the police.  He was ordered to perform community service at the Brickdam Police Station on Sundays for the next six months.