Mason slapped with 13 charges after confrontation with cop

…fined $400,000, jailed for 6 months

A 24-year-old mason of Sheet Anchor Village, East Canje Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), has been charged with multiple traffic and related offences following an incident in New Amsterdam during which a traffic rank was assaulted while performing his duties. Keon Clarke was charged with 13 offences, including unlicensed driving under Section 23(1) of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, Chapter 51:02; two counts of dangerous driving under Section 36(1) of the same Act; failure to have identification marks on the front and rear of a motor vehicle under Section 13; breach of insurance under Section 3(1); driving without a safety helmet under Paragraph 3(1) of the Motorcycle (Protective Helmet) Regulations, 1972; operating an uncertified motor vehicle under Section 15; failure to stop when required by a police officer in uniform under Section 52(a); and fraudulently imitating an identification mark under Section 106(a).
He was also charged under the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02, with disorderly behaviour under Section 36(a); assault causing actual bodily harm under Section 30(a); two counts of damage to property under Section 61; and resisting a peace officer under Section 28(b). The charges stem from a confrontation that was captured on video and circulated on social media. The footage shows Clarke approaching the traffic rank with a glass bottle in his hand, assaulting the officer and subsequently hurling the bottle at him. During the incident, he allegedly committed several traffic and other offences. Clarke appeared before Magistrate Michelle Matthias at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to six of the offences: failure to wear a safety helmet, breach of insurance, failure to have identification marks on the rear and front of the vehicle, operating an uncertified motor vehicle and being an unlicensed driver.
For failure to wear a safety helmet, he was fined $25,000 – or one month’s imprisonment. For breach of insurance, he was fined $25,000 – or three months’ imprisonment – and his driver’s licence was suspended for 12 months. He was fined $150,000 and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for each of the offences relating to failure to have identification marks on the rear and front of the vehicle. For operating an uncertified motor vehicle, he was fined $25,000 or one month’s imprisonment, and for being an unlicensed driver, he was fined $25,000 or two months’ imprisonment. In total, Clarke was fined $400,000 and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on the matters to which he pleaded guilty. He pleaded not guilty to the remaining offences, including assault causing actual bodily harm and resisting a peace officer. Bail was refused, and he was remanded to prison.
The matters were adjourned to March 5.