Antigua : The 18-year-old Antigua & Barbuda Institute of Continuing Education (ABICE) student convicted of possession of a modified flare gun and ammunition has been fined $2,000.
Malcolm Reid, who reappeared before Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh yesterday, was ordered to pay $1,000 of it immediately.
Reid has until the end of November to pay the balance or he will be jailed for six months. He was also placed on two years’ probation and warned to keep out of trouble.
A letter from ABICE, which the court had requested, described the teenager as disrespectful. He has been involved in fights and was suspended last year for “liming” around the school, in the same area he was caught with the illegal items.
Dexter Wason, who on Monday told the court that Reid was a good student, admitted that after seeing the correspondence he was not sure how sound his arguments were.
Police approached Reid on October 18, about 1 pm, while he and others were sitting on the veranda of a house in Tomlinson’s.
The officers smelled marijuana and later requested to search the youth. Nothing was found on him, but the loaded modified flare gun was found in his knapsack.
He was taken into custody, arrested and charged. Reid, who pleaded guilty to the offences, initially claimed he found the flare gun and the Winchester 30-30 ammunition in some grass.
