Michael McLean, Star Writer

lacovia, st elizabeth

A Panamanian-born man charged with robbery with aggravation, after he and two of his friends held up and robbed a sub- contractor of over $700,000, was sentenced to four months imprisonment.

Bernardo Barrett, 27, ofSanta Cruz, St. Elizabeth, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Resident Magistrate Dionne Meyler-Reid, in the Santa Cruz RM Court last week.

His accomplice, Kerran Mchargh, 22, who also pleaded guilty, was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years while the charge against the third man, Andre Whyte, was dropped.

The court was told that on December 1, 2006, about 12:15 p.m., the complainant was working on a supermarket building along Pagan Drive, Santa Cruz.

He was on his way from the bank, just a few metres away from the construction site with the pay bill for workers when he was robbed at knifepoint.

The court also heard that Barrett was armed with a knife and Mchargh armed with a piece of board, which he used to hit the complainant. Whyte arrived at the scene on a bicycle during the robbery.

Mchargh and Whyte were picked up about 7 p.m. that same night and charged. Barrett was arrested on August 20, 2007. About $200,000 was recovered.