Derek Achong

A Ch­agua­nas man was yes­ter­day sen­tenced to four months im­pris­on­ment with hard labour for breach of the cur­few. Kei­th Yorke, 42, plead­ed guilty when he ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Gillian David-Scot­land in the Ch­agua­nas Mag­is­trates' Court. Yorke was ar­rest­ed at around 12.30 am yes­ter­day while walk­ing along the Ch­agua­nas Main Road, Ch­agua­nas. When called up­on to pro­vide an ex­pla­na­tion for break­ing the 11 pm to 4 am cur­few, Yorke said he was on his way home at the time.

David-Scot­land agreed with the po­lice that Yorke's ex­pla­na­tion was in­suf­fi­cient con­sid­er­ing his crim­i­nal record which showed nu­mer­ous court mat­ters for house break­ing and lar­ce­ny. Yorke was charged by PC Gor­don of the Ch­agua­nas CID. On Au­gust 21, when the state of emer­gency was an­nounced the ini­tial fine for breach of the cur­few was $500. Sev­en days lat­er, af­ter a num­ber of per­sons be­ing charged for breach of the cur­few, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, an­nounced an in­crease in the max­i­mum fine to $3,000 or up to six months im­pris­on­ment.

Mean­while, a Mor­vant se­cu­ri­ty su­per­vi­sor was yes­ter­day fined $1,500 af­ter plead­ing guilty to break­ing the cur­few. Lennox Bruce, of Sec­ond Cale­don­ian, Mor­vant, was or­dered by Chief Mag­is­trate Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar to pay the fine forth­with or face six weeks in prison with hard labour. Bruce, a guard at a mall in down­town, Port-of-Spain, was ar­rest­ed ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing while dri­ving along In­de­pen­dence Square, Port-of-Spain. Bruce told the court he fell asleep at work and woke up af­ter the cur­few start­ed. He said he on­ly lived a short dis­tance away and thought he could reach home quick­ly.