HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – Bermuda national team cricketer Fiqre Crockwell has been fined US$800 after being caught red-handed while trying to throw six wraps of heroin out of a window as police raided his home.
The fine–imposed in Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after the 29-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman admitted possessing a controlled drug – prompted magistrate Archibald Warner to ask: “Maybe he should not be representing his country?”
Crockwell was initially charged with possessing the heroin with intent to supply.
But the charge was dropped by prosecutors halfway through the trial and Crockwell pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of simple possession of the drugs.
Earlier, the court had heard that police descended on the cricketer’s home in St George’s at about 5.25 p.m. on August 27, 2013.
Pc Shannon Swan described how he restrained Crockwell on a bed after seeing him throw “something silver” out of the window.
During the search, officers found six wraps of heroin on the window sill that were later examined and estimated to be worth $120.
At the end of the prosecution case, Crockwell’s lawyer Simone Smith-Bean successfully argued that the 0.47 gram weight of the heroin seized did not reach the statutory threshold of one gram needed to amount to a charge of possession with intent to supply.
She told the court that Crockwell was a man of good character and urged the magistrate to impose a conditional discharge so her client could travel with the national cricket team and pursue his sporting ambitions.
“He takes full responsibility for being in possession of the drugs,” she said.