Prison time for curfew violation

Six months in prison was the sentence handed down on a 32-year-old man who was outdoors on Heroes Day during the national curfew without a reasonable explanation.

Shane Alexander Drakes, of 1st Avenue Sion Hill Terrace, Sion Hill, St James was arrested around 2:45 p.m. yesterday by police.

Lawmen were carrying out operations in a bushy area of Drakes’ community when they saw him approaching an area where cannabis plants were under cultivation. Asked why he was outdoors at the time Drakes, according to prosecutor Sergeant Theodore McClean, told lawmen he was coming to “cut some sticks”. However he had no paraphernalia to support was he was saying.

A search was requested and a quantity of cannabis was found on him. “This is a little Bajan weed that a man give me to smoke this morning,” he told police at the time.

Before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes today Drakes explained that his younger brother wanted sticks to “complete something” in their backyard. “So he asked me to help so I went to cut some sticks,” he explained while admitting that he was aware that a curfew was in place.

Asked by the chief magistrate what were his days for shopping and doing other business Drakes was unsure and listed three days for shopping – Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“My problem with all of this, is that, we have too many ads out there to protect people and wunna out there breaking the law. Too many of wunna walking around like nothing is happening. Wunna don’t understand how serious this Covid thing is,” Chief Magistrate Weekes said before he imposed the sentence on the breach of curfew charge.

Drakes was reprimanded and discharged on the drug charge.