Serial smoker arrested again

A St James man found himself in fresh trouble with the law when he was brought before the St James Parish Court on June 27 for breaching the regulations against smoking in public, mere months after being arrested for the same offence.

Leslie Foster pleaded guilty to the charge of smoking in a public place, for which he had been arrested for smoking a ganja spliff along Hart Street in Montego Bay.

"Has Mr Foster been here before?" presiding judge Sandria Wong-Small asked Foster's attorney, Michael Hemmings.

"He was here a couple of months ago for marijuana," Hemmings admitted.

"Why do you think I should be entertaining you every quarter of the year because you won't obey the law?" an annoyed Wong-Small asked Foster.

"I obey the law," Foster replied.

Wong-Small subsequently ordered Foster to pay a fine of J$5,000 or spend 30 days in prison at hard labour.

"The next time I see you, I'm going to exercise the alternative to the fine. I would suggest very strongly, because I know you have been here recently, that the next time I identify you, you make sure you have packed a bag to take with you," Wong-Small warned Foster.

-C.T.