Carpenter gets one month to pay $1 000 gun fine

Despite having a “rusty”, inoperable pipe gun, Darwin St Alban Crookendale will have to pay the court $1 000 in one month if he wants to avoid a one-year prison term.

Appearing before Justice Carlisle Greaves in the No. 3 Supreme Court on Monday, the 60-year-old carpenter of Taitt Hill, St George, pleaded guilty to possession of a pipe gun without a valid licence on March 17, 2020.

Outlining the facts, Principal State Counsel Neville Watson said police searched Crookendale’s residence around 3:50 a.m. on the date in question. After nothing was found inside the house, the officers searched the makeshift garage and found the weapon under several sheets of concrete board stacked against the wall.

When asked about it, he replied, “I don’t know what that is. I only stack them sheets there.”

Further in the interview, when he was asked who made the firearm, Crookendale said, “If you go back inside, you would see my welding plant I does use to do my work.” He later told officers that he could not recall when he had made the gun.

When the officers checked the weapon, they saw what appeared to be a round of ammunition but attempts to get it out proved futile.

Noting that it was the convicted man’s first firearm offence, Watson said Crookendale’s intentional plan to have the firearm was the lone aggravating factor found.

Concerning mitigating factors, he highlighted his cooperation with the police and that the firearm examiner had found the weapon to be inoperable.

“Looking at it, it seems like it would cause more injury to the person that was holding it than to some other person,” Watson stated.

The prosecutor submitted that a $1 000 fine paid in three weeks would satisfy justice in this case.

In mitigation, Senior Counsel Michael Lashley, who was Crookendale’s attorney, identified the inoperability of the firearm and that there was no evidence that it had been used in the commission of any offence.

He agreed with the prosecutor’s fine recommendation but asked for four weeks for the funds to be paid, pointing out that his client was still trying to rebuild his life after losing his home in a house fire in 2018.

Asking the court for “a chance”, Crookendale said he was not working due to a back injury.

Agreeing that the penalty should fall on the lower end, Justice Greaves fined him $1 000 to be paid in four weeks. If he fails to pay, he will spend 12 months at Dodds Prison.

“No excuse will be taken. I am giving you a review date, and if you do not pay, you will go to jail,” the judge stressed before adjourning the matter untilFebruary 16.