Cutlass touting bus driver sentenced to 12 months in jail for chasing Cop

Collis Whyte, the bus driver who was caught on camera chasing a traffic cop with a cutlass, was today sentenced to one-year imprisonment when he appeared before Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

Whyte was charged with resisting police arrest, disorderly behaviour, having an offensive weapon, use of indecent language, and threatening behaviour.

The bus driver, who hails from Sophia, Greater Georgetown, pleaded guilty to all the charges except for the disorderly behaviour charge.

On the charge of disorderly behaviour, he is expected to return to court on May 17.

Whyte was subsequently arraigned before Magistrate Clive Nurse on four counts of dangerous driving, failure to give the right away, failure to wear a seatbelt, breach of prescribed road fitness, the conduct of a driver and failure to wear a facemask.

Collis Whyte

The bus driver pleaded not guilty to three of the charges and was released on $240,000 bail.

However, he pleaded guilty to failure to wear a seatbelt and was fined $7,500. The case was adjourned to May 28.

On April 20, Police Constable Edwin Connelly was on a motorcycle patrol proceeding west on Homestretch Avenue while minibus, BZZ 3029 was proceeding east on the said road overtaking a traffic line of 15 vehicles.

The driver was stopped and told of the offence of dangerous driving and was asked by the police officer to produce his driver’s licence.

The bus driver, however, drove away.

Constable Connelly went after the driver and caught up with him on Sheriff Street where he managed to stop the vehicle once again in a bid to prevent the continuation of the offence.

At this point, the driver exited the bus, proceeded to the left passenger side of the vehicle, retrieved a weapon, which appeared to be a cutlass, and chased after Constable Connelly.

The Constable then ran away in a bid to prevent himself from being hurt.

The driver then got back into the minibus and drove to his Sophia residence where he was later arrested