A 26-year-old Sandy Bay Man was, on Monday, fined EC$500 for possession of one round of .22 ammunition at his home.
Raphael Lavia was ordered to pay the amount by Aug. 23 or spend three months in jail.
Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne also bonded him for six months in the sum of EC$1,000 or six months in prison.
Lavia pleaded guilty, at the Serious Offences Court, to a charge that he had one round of .22 ammunition in his possession without a licence on July 26, at Sandy Bay.
Police, acting on information during an investigation of a robbery report, took Lavia into custody and executed a search at his home.
During the search, they found the ammunition on Lavia’s bed in his bedroom.
Lavia told the police that he had found the ammunition in a drain near a shortcut.
In mitigation, counsel Ronald Marks noted that his client pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
He noted that the round was of a relatively small calibre.
The lawyer said that while the story that his client gave police about finding the ammunition is an all-too-familiar one, he is inclined to believe his client.
The lawyer said that the round of ammunition is longer those generally found in the country, adding that it is of a type generally used for hunting.
He said a lot of hunting takes place in the area where his client said he found the ammunition.
He said that while his client has two convictions or a dissimilar kind, they were from his younger days.
In handing down her sentence, the chief magistrate said that while she takes a tough line on possession of ammunition, the case involved only one round, and of a type used for hunting.
She noted that the lawyer had said that Lavia assists in the financial care of his sisters and is gainfully employed.
Browne said a custodial sentence would not go to the man’s benefit.
Where is the smoking gun? Maybe it dropped off a mango tree.
Sometimes I wonder how the so called lawyers got their qualifications. Small calibre but it’s deadly.
What a waste of everybody’s time
I feel dumber for reading this, who comes up with these useless laws and stuff?? I know that we use .22 cartridges to hammer nails into concrete in the USA and probably around the world too since my nail driving tool was made in China! A .22 cartridge is not even a center fire rifle bullet, sure it can go off accidentally by dropping a fist size rock on it, but saying it’s for hunting is like saying a plastic knife is for cutting… when compared to all the other machetes, fillet, and the famous Bowie hunting knifes even the kiddos are trusted with those plastic utensils. As such the .22 caliber is used in rifles which are typically made smaller than average so that even children can carry and use them without much difficulty. Notice I didn’t say babies, toddlers, or runts. A 6 year old girl with a few hours of training is able to be a better long range precision shooter with a .22 rifle than most first time shooting adults with higher caliber guns because the .22 has almost no recoil and is much quieter which helps lessen their flinch when firing. Try one some time before you ruin people’s lives one uneducated judgement at a time!
Very small calibre humm. Can taken many lives. Watch a country and lawlessness.