Two men accused of human trafficking were fined thousands of dollars by Magistrate Ossie Lewis today.
Clive Joseph, of Picard and Francis George of Lagoon had initially pleaded guilty to their offense on Tuesday morning.
They were caught by coast guard officers illegally transporting 10 Haitian nationals in a boat out of Dominica on April 1, about six miles southwest of Scottshead, heading in the direction of Martinique.
Joseph, who was the captain of the vessel, was fined $20,000, of which he is to pay a first installment of $5,000 by June 15, 2010 or spend a year in jail. The balance of $15,000 was ordered to be paid by March 15, 2011 or he spends another 18 months in prison.
George however, was fined $10,000. He was ordered to pay an initial $3,000 of the sum by June 15, 2010, or in default he will face nine months in prison. The remainder of the fine is expected to be paid by March 31, 2011 or George spends an additional 12 months in jail.
According to the facts of the case, Joseph and George were paid to assist the immigrants’ travel to Martinique.
Defense lawyer Julien Prevost had told the court at the previous hearing that a Haitian female aboard the white and blue “Precious Sasha” vessel was ill and seeking medical attention in Martinique.
The 10 Haitians were released after accused of attempting to leave the island illegally.
Lennox Lawrence represented five defendants, while Dawn Yearwood-Stewart and Prevost defended one each.
Hermisha Rolle, Staff reporter
oh pease ppl they charge the poor ppl in excess of 800 us dollars to go to guadeloupe and martinigue.if the woman was sick they should have taken her to the local hospital and she be refered to seek outside medcial attention if it was warranted.dont pretend all you don’t know whats happening.them guys become wealthy doing that on a regular basis.so is someone sick everytime they are caught?what happens when they are not cuaght and these haitian bodies are found floating of the coast of guadeloupe and martiniaue?do you know after charging these haitians so much money for such a short journey they don’t even have the courtesy of atleast taking them to the shores?about 100 metres from shore they’re asked to jump off the boats and swim or pushed off if they don’t jump?please dont come and make excuses for these human trafficers.portsmouth has quite a few ppl seating pretty on their millions they made on these haitians.that fine is just not enough.should be upwards of six figure.
seems like you are well familia with the trade, use to be in it too man? just wondering
THEM MEN CAN PAY THAT! WHO KNOWS, THEY MAY BE ON A TRIP 2NIGHT. LOL
The Haitians should have been charge, because they were leaving to enter another country illegal, they are part of the crime, this is a fifty fifty case, whoever approached the fishermen to commit the crime need to be charge also and pay a hefty fine, why charge the fishermen peanuts and set the criminals free, they are planning another trip, this time i do hope that the Guadelopue Officials apprehend them, and them all the blame and talk will be on Dominicans, Haitians are Devils and cannot be trusted, these people need to depart from Dominica
i agree with u to an extent. bcause im wondering if the haitians go free then what are the men charged for? if the haitians were not outside of Dominica’s area then obviously the men were not as well…. so as they charge them for human trafficking, which human were they trafficking???????? no one needs much schooling to state and answer these questions nuh…..after all mn… well den again typical Dominica(ns).
Illegal Migration is not Human Trafficking.
Some people are too busy to plead guilty without their Lawyer’s advice.
What’s your point “Fairplay”? The Hatians were never charged for Human Trafficking. You are trying to get a point across but it makes no sense. Two men who are Clive Joseph and Francis George were chared for Human Trafficking because they intended to move the Hatians from Dominica to Martinique by llegal means. What is that missing to be Human Trfficking?
As usual the regulars a going Raga, Raga, Raga. still being blind by the facts of the case. Just a suggestion by people with knowledge of our laws especially our Pinal Laws of Dominica. Please do all of us a favor interprit the laws to those people we all will benifit greatly from the Education. I do not need comit relif when i come on D.N.O. My reason for looging on is to be educated and keep in touch with the real news. I hope D.N.O. mission is the same.
WELL DONE MR. LEWIS, lets us hope that it will be an example to them, and is not first time they doing it, is a habit they have, not even a habit that is a small word, it is their occupation, to carry haitians to maritnique, they make enough money on haitians already, next time make it more and there will be a next time because is all they have doing, brickbats on the lawyer, although he making his money, but not at my expense, because when they catch thosse haitians they saying is DOMINICA they come out and it giving us a bad name and making it hard for honest persons like me to go to maritnique, they destroying our islands image and they rolling big in the land.
The maximum fine for Human Trafficking is $100,000. The captain is given a fine of $20,000. and his co-captain is given a fine of $10,000. They both have more than enough time to pay these fines. I don’t see anything “heavy” about that.
wait the ppl they was transporting go free but they have to py wat nonsense that
if the haitians are not wrong then why charge the men
DNO …. you should ;get a legal opinion for your readers………. If the case of the Hatians who were allegedly trying to leave Dominica were dismissed, couldn’t CliveJoseph and Francis George, say they were taking the hatians for a boat ride (lol)
… But doh worry the Big Boy will come down one day, too many of those poor people dere loose their lives; i doh know why they giving dem visa to come here for to go an loose their lives on small boats like dat and richening big man pockets
FAIRPLAY NEEDS to READ and EDUCATE HIM/HERSELF before making such stupid comments for the world to read. Human Trafficking is to ILLEGALLY transport any person from one place to another. It is HUMAN TRAFFICKING FAIRPLAY.