Raphael Hintzen, who was previously jailed for robbery, was ordered to serve a three-year sentence last week after he admitted to charges of illegal possession of a pistol and ammunition.
Hintzen pleaded guilty to the two charges after they were read to him by Magistrate Clive Nurse in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court Seven.
The court heard that on December 18th, 2019, at West Ruimveldt, Hintzen had a .32 Taurus Millennium pistol and four live rounds of matching ammunition in his possession, without being the holder of firearm licence.
According to prosecutor Deniro Jones, around 8.30 pm last Wednesday, police were on patrol around the West Ruimveldt area, where they stopped a car and conducted a search. However, the prosecutor said, before searching the car, ranks allegedly saw Hintzen, who was sitting in the back of the car, drop an object on the floor. When they retrieved the object, it was the firearm along with the four matching rounds.
The magistrate subsequently asked Hintzen if what prosecutor Jones said was true and Hintzen answered, “I don’t want to waste the court time or your time… I indeed had the gun but I only had it because I have a seven-year-old child and robbers keep breaking our home and I want to protect my family.”
He apologised and asked the magistrate to be lenient with him. The magistrate then asked Hintzen a series questions and Hintzen revealed that he was previously charged with armed robbery and was sentenced to five years in jail after he was found guilty.
Before sentencing Hintzen, the magistrate told him that he took into consideration the fact that Hintzen did not waste the court’s time as well as the seriousness and prevalence of the crime.
He sentenced Hintzen to three years in jail for each of the charges but said that the sentences will run concurrently and as a result Hintzen will only serve three years in jail. He was fined $100,000 for the possession of the pistol and $50,000 for the possession of ammunition.
