Finding the sentence of three years for trafficking 16 grammes of cannabis to have been unduly harsh, the Full Court yesterday imposed a one-year suspended sentence on Tabatinga youth, Shem Winter.
The 21-year-old was sentenced in December of last year and fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to the charge when he appeared before Magistrate Allan Wilson at the Lethem Magistrate’s Court.
Through attorney Jerome Khan, however, he subsequently filed an appeal to the Full Court, arguing that the sentence was unduly harsh, and that the Magistrate failed to apply Section 73(b) of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, which includes provision for consideration of special reasons in determining a sentence.
Khan had advanced that his young client was gainfully employed “and was never caught in a commercial transaction selling the narcotic.”
He said that the young man, who was unrepresented when he pleaded to the charge, had told the Magistrate that the narcotic was for his personal use.
In a press release, Khan said acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC and Justice Sandil Kissoon allowed the appeal and imposed the one-year suspended sentence after finding the three-year sentence to have been excessive.
This newspaper had previously reported that on the day in question, police on patrol duties, acting on information, intercepted motorcar PRR 4548, with three occupants, including Winter.
They were proceeding along the Tabatinga, Central Rupununi, access road.
It was reported that in conducting a search, lawmen uncovered a bulky transparent plastic bag in Winter’s crotch, which contained a quantity of leaves, seeds and stems suspected to be cannabis.
The police stated that the young man was cautioned and admitted that the illicit drug was his.
He was subsequently arrested and charged.
