Vendor, 24, begs for mercy after being caught with cocaine

A fruit vendor has sullied his criminal record by having 58 foil wrappings containing eight grammes of cocaine in his possession.

“Have mercy on me and me give me time to pay. Is not something I does do. I sell fruits,” the vendor, Jeremy John, 24, of Glen, told Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne at his sentencing on Friday.

John appeared before the  Serious Offences Court and pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a controlled drug, to wit 8 grammes of cocaine. 

According to facts, read by Sergeant Atnel Ash, on June 15, about 4 p.m., at Glen, police officers, headed by PC 711 Williams, were on mobile patrol duty about Glen. 

When they got near a shop and lotto booth in the “Gaza” area, PC 833 Buttler observed the defendant running behind the shop.

Butler became suspicious and alighted the vehicle but noticed the defendant had returned to the front of the shop.

The officer approached John, identified himself and told him of his suspicion.

Buttler then took John to the back of the shop, where he found a transparent bag containing aluminium foil wrappings .

The bag was shown to the John and the foil wrappings were opened in his presence and were found to contain 

whitish substance resembling cocaine.

“Officer I found the said plastic bag in town and is cocaine,” John said when cautioned.

In hading down her sentence, the  magistrate highlighted to John some of the effects that cocaine has on people.

“Sometimes, you just want to get a quick buck but you don’t consider the lives you destroy,” Browne said.

“Don’t do that to people. You don’t want anybody doing that to you or your family.”

John told the court that he found the cocaine on the same day that the police caught him with it.

After considering the aggravating and mitigating factors of the offence and the offender, and having applied a one-third discount for the early guilty plea, the magistrate fined John EC$1,460.

The defendant has to pay the amount by Aug. 4  or spend  six months in prison.

The magistrate also ordered destruction of the “wretched” substance.