A Sandy Bay man who told the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court that he always has a cutlass in his motor vehicle for protection has been fined.
Amran Sutherland, 32, told Magistrate Bertie Pompey that he had previously stopped his vehicle “to save somebody and a man put a knife at me throat”.
Sutherland told the court that although that man is in prison, he always carries a cutlass in his vehicle.
Sutherland appeared before the magistrate charged that on Dec. 1, at Mt Bentick, at the mall in Georgetown, without lawful excuse, being a public place, he had in his possession an offensive weapon to wit a cutlass.
Presenting the facts, the prosecutor, Corporal 817 Stapleton told the court that on the date at about 8:30 p.m., Renrick Baynes a 56-year-old bailiff, of Diamond Estate, was sitting in his vehicle in the mall’s parking lot when he observed the defendant was approached by another individual.
The bailiff warned Sutherland, who went to his vehicle and removed a cutlass.
Sutherland returned to the parking lot with the cutlass and another person warned him.
The bailiff then telephoned the Georgetown Police Station and officers arrived on the scene and were able to retrieve the cutlass.
Sutherland at the time told the officers, “The cutlass is for protection and I always have it under the seat.”
The magistrate asked the defendant, “So the cutlass is to maim and assault and wound? That’s the intention?”
Pompey fined the defendant EC$400, half of which was to be paid forthwith or three months in prison.
The balance must be paid in one month to avoid a three-month prison stay. The court also ordered that the cutlass be confiscated.