Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton yesterday ordered that a Linden woman serve four years imprisonment when she admitted being found with a quantity of cannabis. She was also fined $207,400.
A 45-year-old Linden man who was jointly charged with her was remanded to prison by the magistrate after he denied having any knowledge of the cannabis.
The duo appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court with different accounts of the incident.
The woman, Dianna Ross, pleaded guilty to the charge while Godfrey Hollingsworth entered a not guilty plea.
Ross admitted that on January 22 at Kurupukari police checkpoint, Essequibo River, she had 230.5 grammes of cannabis in her possession for the purpose of trafficking, but Hollingsworth denied the charge.
The woman, who appeared distressed, told the magistrate that “all de ganja is me own…..nothing is he own….Ma hand dey lil tie so I had to do something foh geh lil money.”
Meanwhile, Hollingsworth contended that ‘I don’t know nothing about it…..I is only de taxi driver in this case.”
However, Prosecutor Shellon Daniels objected to Hollingsworth’s bail application when he suggested it, noting that the cannabis was found in his car.
She said that Ross had been travelling in Hollingsworth’s taxi when the police stopped them at the Kurupukari checkpoint and conducted a routine search on the car.
She said that tucked discreetly behind the back of the driver’s seat was a black bag that contained the cannabis.
The two were then arrested and later charged with the offence.
The magistrate ordered that the case against Hollingsworth be transferred to the Lethem Magistrate’s Court for March 9.