WAITRESS Pulmattie Harricharran nicknamed ‘Shorty’, 43, sentenced to four years imprisonment and fined $2.7M on conviction for drug trafficking, was yesterday granted $750,000 bail pending an appeal.
Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang acted on her petition in the Berbice High Court.
Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo had imposed the custodial and monetary penalties on the convict, of Lot 25 Charles Place, New Amsterdam, last October 8.
However, attorney-at-law Mursulene Bacchus, for the petitioner, argued, before the judge, that the appeal has substantial merit as the sentencing magistrate erred in law, by finding Harricharran to be in possession of the narcotic, merely because she was an occupant of the house where it was found.
The lawyer also claimed the magistrate gave no reason for her decision and it is known that appeals take more than a year to be heard.
Harricharran was jointly charged with her reputed husband, Fidel Fitzgerald Glasgow, who had, months previously, confessed to having 2,300 grammes of cannabis (marijuana), at the home they shared, on March 12, 2009, for which he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Police, acting on information received, went to the couple’s address and alleged that they saw Harricharran, a mother of two, attending to the prohibited plant inside the house.
In the Magistrate’s Court, Police Inspector Satrohan Dayaram, prosecuting, had said Glasgow, a deportee, was not at home at the time of the bust but telephoned the station and negotiated a deal.
However, on his arrival at the agreed location, as arranged, he was arrested and, when he appeared in Court, accepted ownership of the narcotic.