Mistake costs Oliver $10,000

Vincentian businessman Garth Lancelot Bernard Oliver who passed through two airports with a .22 calibre revolver and five bullets undetected on January 4, now has seven days to pay a $10 000 fine.

Garth Lancelot Bernard Oliver, 32, of Arnos Vale, appeared in the No. 3 Supreme Court in Barbados Thursday, April 21, before Mr. Justice Christopher Blackman and admitted to having the gun and bullets. {{more}}

He was fined $5 000 in seven days with an alternative of two years in prison for having the gun, and a similar fine for the bullets. The jail terms will run concurrently.

Until the fine was paid the businessman was barred from leaving Barbados, and his passport confiscated.

“The nature of the offence arises out of you leaving your country at an ungodly hour and not taking precautions of checking your bag,” the judge said.

Oliver is the owner of Rent and Drive Parts Depot. On January 4, he boarded a 6:40 a.m. flight from St. Vincent and came to Barbados to conduct business. All the while, he was carrying the gun in his handbag.

However, when he tried returning home around 8:35 p.m., electronic scanners at Grantley Adams International Airport detected the gun and bullets in a bag he was carrying.

Oliver told the police he did not check the bag before leaving St. Vincent and forgot about the gun.

Speaking on Oliver’s behalf, attorney Randall Worrell said the gun was not obtained through illegal gains, but was passed on through generations.

He added that his client had a clean police record in St. Vincent and was waiting to be granted a gun licence there.

Worrell also noted that due to an upsurge of crime in St. Vincent, and having fallen victim to robberies, Oliver felt it best to have the firearm.

He added that his client, a married man and father of two, usually travelled to Barbados to carry out business transactions.

The attorney said that after his client was granted $100 000 bail on January 13, he travelled back and forth to Barbados, missing none of his court dates.

Crown Counsel Alliston Seale prosecuted the matter. (Weekend Nation)