Sandy Bay resident pleads guilty to marijuana charge

Sandy Bay resident Lloyd Nanton-Ballantyne was given the option to pay $5,000 or spend the next six months in jail, after he pleaded guilty to having 2,212 grams of cannabis in his possession when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias at the Serious Offences Court yesterday.{{more}}

Nanton-Ballantyne was apprehended on April 19 this year at about 6:15 p.m., by members of the Rapid Response Unit (RRU), while they were conducting a ‘stop and search’ exercise at the Magum public road.

According to police, Nanton-Ballantyne was seated in the third row of a green omnibus, licence plate number H259, that was travelling from the direction of Sandy Bay towards Georgetown, when they observed a multicoloured bag backpack at his feet.

Officers requested a search and recovered one brown taped package in the bag. Nanton-Ballantyne admitted: “Officer, to tell you the truth, is just a pound of weed me have.”

The Sandy Bay man was then arrested and taken to the Georgetown Police Station, where the drugs were weighed in his presence.

Chief Magistrate Browne-Matthias, in an act of leniency, ordered that he pay a fine of $5,000 by November 18, 2016, or spend six months behind bars.