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A 26-year-old man from the community of Castle Bruce now owes the court $20,000.00 following his guilty plea to possession of and possession with intent to supply $91,682.00 worth of cocaine.<\/p>\n
Damien Berkitt was arrested and charged for having in his possession 3433.8 grams of cocaine on July 27, 2021, at Pottersville with the intent to supply the said drugs to another individual(s).<\/p>\n
According to the facts of the case, about 4:30 p.m on the aforementioned date, members of the drug squad unit received certain information and as a result, went on duty in Pottersville at Maxmart Supermarket.<\/p>\n
Upon arrival they saw Berkitt sitting under a shed and he was approached by Constable Lawrence who informed him of his intention to search him for controlled drugs.<\/p>\n
During the search, nothing liable for seizure was found on his person but inside a black backpack which the defendant had in his possession, a black plastic bag was discovered which contained three packages of cocaine<\/p>\n
The Constable continued his search and inside the same backpack, another plastic bag was found with foil wrapping containing more of the drug. When questioned about it, Berkitt replied, \u201ccocaine that there for someone to test for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berkitt was then arrested and transported to the Roseau Police Station.<\/p>\n
Whilst in Police custody, the drug was was weighed, tested and proven to be cocaine. A charge was formally preferred against the defendant on July 29, 2021.<\/p>\n
At the court hearing, Attorney for Berkitt, Wayne Norde, told the court that his client was very remorseful for his action and pleaded with the Magistrate to temper justice with mercy.<\/p>\n
Norde said the 26-year-old electrician is an expecting father and his action was motivated by his financial disadvantage.<\/p>\n
He said Berkitt had found the drugs but \u201cwasn\u2019t sure what it was so he was going to have it tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the maximum penalty for possession with intent to supply drugs at $150,000 or three times the street value, and having taken into account Berkitt\u2019s guilty plea and his attorney’s plea in mitigation, Magistrate Laudat fined the defendant $20,000.00.<\/p>\n
From this amount, Berkitt was ordered to pay $3,000.00 forthwith; in default he would be imprisoned for six months.\u00a0 He is to pay an additional $8,500.00 by December 31, 2021 or face six months in prison whilst the remaining $8,500.00 should be paid no later than March 31, 2022 or Berkitt will be imprisoned for two years.<\/p>\n
There was no separate penalty for the charge of possession of cocaine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 26-year-old man from the community of Castle Bruce now owes the court $20,000.00 following his guilty plea to possession of and possession with intent to supply $91,682.00 worth of cocaine. Damien Berkitt was arrested and charged for having in…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":271905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-court-law","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n