Bond breach leaves man behind bars

A 47-year-old man will spend Christmas behind bars after his admission to an apparatus charge triggered a breach of bond.

Steve Gordon Miller of no fixed place of abode appeared before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes and pleaded guilty that on Wednesday, he had an apparatus for using cocaine.

The No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court heard that police were on patrol in St Lawrence Gap when they saw the accused, who began acting suspiciously. After they approached and requested a search, they found the apparatus, and Miller told them: ‘I use it to smoke cocaine.’

But the accused man denied this to the chief magistrate saying: “I did not say I smoke cocaine, but I did have the apparatus.”

Miller had been placed on a three-month bond to keep the peace at the beginning of August, pay a fine or face a similar period in jail.

Weekes then said: “If this had happened three days from now, you would not have triggered the breach, but unfortunately, you will now spend Christmas at Dodds Prison.”

After Miller said he did not have any money to pay the fine, the chief magistrate ordered him to serve three months, to run concurrently with the sentence for the bond breach.