western bureau

Two men, who the St. James police charged with breaches of Copyright Act, were fined a total $119,000 when they appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Denton Bennett, 26-year-old security guard of a Montego Bay address, was charged with 11 counts in relation to bootleg DVD movies, while 20-year-old Brad Gray of Barnett Street was charged with 25 counts in relation to bootleg CDs.

Both men were held on separate days in different sections of the Second City offering the items for sale and were arrested and charged.

Gray, who told the court that he sold one of his CDs for $200, was fined $3,000 or three months in jail on each count, while Bennett was fined $4,000 or three months for each of his charges.

Gray was held along St. James Street on December 6 with several duplicated copies of CDs from artist including Mavado, Jah Cure, Kanye West, Rihanna among others. Bennett, however, was seen on Barnett Street on December 4 with DVD movies including Born to Fight, No Tomorrow, and Little Brats.

Bennett told the court that he was securing the items for a friend who had to go elsewhere.

The two were given 28 days, in their own surety, to pay the fines after they told the court that they were unable to pay the fines in full on the same day.

- T.M.