Pubdate: Sat, 08 Dec 2007
Source: Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday (Trinidad)
Copyright: 2007 Daily News Limited
Contact:  http://www.newsday.co.tt/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4370
Author: Azard Ali

HAMEL-SMITH - MOMS TAKING THE RAP

WOMEN who take the rap for relatives on drug charges  should not
expect the court to be lenient with them.

In a stern warning yesterday, acting Chief Justice  Roger Hamel-Smith
said the courts have become wise to  the practice of women, especially
pregnant mothers,  taking the rap for their children.

"It has become the trick of the trade," Hamel-Smith  said during the
hearing of magisterial appeal cases in  the San Fernando High Court.

Yesterday Hamel-Smith, and Justice Stanley John ordered  a 51-year-old
mother to pay $15,000 in 14 days, or  serve three years hard labour
for the possession of 12  grammes of cocaine.

In the case, Barbara Thompson, appealed a custodial  jail sentence
imposed by a magistrate in the Siparia  Magistrates' Court in June for
the possession of  cocaine.

Two other young relatives were charged, but Thompson  pleaded guilty
to the offence. Hamel-Smith told  Thompson that it was evident she had
decided to take  the rap on their behalf and hoped the court would
have  been lenient.

He referred to cases involving the discovery of large  quantities of
drugs at homes, "but everybody gets off,  except the person least
culpable", who in most cases  was a woman.

If Thompson was taking the rap for her relatives, he  told her
attorney Jagdeo Singh, "then why should she  not be punished?"

Hamel-Smith reiterated the real culprits in drug cases  were smiling
all the way to the bank, while their  mothers plead guilty.
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MAP posted-by: Derek