Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
TWO WESTMORELAND women who were convicted of unlawful possession of a total of US$168 ,000 (J$10,920,000) each had their three-month prison sentence set aside.
Aleisha Arthurs, 24, entertainment co-ordinator, of Petersfield, Westmoreland and Camille Ledgister, 25, of Blackness district, Westmoreland were instead fined $2,000 each or three months imprisonment.
The Court of Appeal pointed out that the maximum sentence under the Unlawful Possession of Property Act for such an offence was $2,000 or three months. The court said it took into account the fact that the women were first offenders.
Attorney-at-law Leroy Equiano who represented the women had asked the court to set aside their convictions. He also argued that the sentence was manifestly excessive.
Crown Counsel Simone Wolfe Reece had submitted that the women lied when they were held with the money on July 24, 2003, She said they lied as to the contents of the bottles because they had reasonable suspicion that the money was unlawfully obtained.
The court agreed with Mrs. Wolfe Reece that the women lied to the police when they said they had clearasil cream in the bottles. The court commented that possession of money by itself was not unlawful, but referred to the fact that the women had lied as to the contents in the bottles.
They were convicted by Resident Magistrate Kissock Laing in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in 2004.
Evidence was given that on July 24, 2003, the women were checking in their luggage at the Norman Manley International Airport to go to Panama. Constable Paul Smith attached to the Narcotics Division noticed the unusual bottles in the luggage when they were being X-rayed. He searched the luggage and found US$1000 bills stuffed in the 16 plastic bottles.
The women said at first that it was cream that was inside the bottles. They subsequently told the police that it was fisherman and businessman Courtney Marks of Montego Bay who had given them the money to buy spare parts for his boats. Marks testified at their trial that he gave them the money to buy the spare parts and accessories for his boats.
