Rose Hall hire car driver sentenced to three years for cannabis

A 24-year-old Rose Hall Town hire car driver was yesterday sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined $61,200 for possession of cannabis when he, along with his father and brother, appeared at the Albion Magistrate Court.

George Mc Lennon, 58, Ishmile Mc Lennon, 24, Salim Ally, 18, all unrepresented and of Lot 163 Second Street, Swamp Section, Rose Hall Town appeared before Magistrate Renita Singh. The charge read that on November 2 the men had in their possession 102 grams of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.

Police Prosecutor, Leon Robertson, told the court that last Thursday police placed the three men in custody after a search was conducted on their residence and a black plastic bag containing the cannabis was discovered in a barrel. The men were taken to the Rose Hall Outpost where they were told of the offence and placed in the lock up. 

Ishmile plead guilty to the charge, while his father, a pensioner, and Ally pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Ishmile told the magistrate while he broke into tears, “Mums is me one, I ain’t want them go down; ow mums a want you see what you can do, I got two children, I just want go out and see them; I don’t want to stay here long, ow mums.”

Magistrate Singh then fined Ishmile $61,200 and sentenced him to three years imprisonment. She also cautioned him to stay on the right track. He responded, “I won’t do this back mums, me never deh so long from me children.”

Meanwhile, the magistrate had initially placed the senior Mc Lennon and Ally on $60,000 bail each. However, Mc Lennon then pleaded on his own behalf, while Ally claimed that they could not afford that. He said, “That bail you put we on is like you na put we on no bail, we can’t afford that”. The magistrate then reduced the bail to $40,000 each, which saw another plea from Mc Lennon who said, “I promise I gone come back to court next time, I promise, we still can’t afford this.”

The Magistrate then placed both men on self-bail and cautioned them to return to court on 12 November for trial.