Teen who blamed ganja smoking for committing crime fined

Nawali Clarke, the 18-year-old who was late last month charged for robbery under arms, was on Wednesday fined for the crime after he admitted to the charge.
The charge against the Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown teen, read that on June 6, 2017, at North Road, Bourda, Georgetown, while being armed with a knife, he robbed Sally Khan of one Samsung S5 cellphone valued 0,000 and on the same day, he robbed Joel Ramsarran of one Samsung S4 valued ,000.
During his first court appearance, the teen had denied the charge but on Wednesday he changed his plea to guilty.
The defendant was placed in the care of a Probation Officer who read a report to the court on her finding after her interaction with him.
Following her disclosures to the court, Magistrate Fabayo Azore asked the defendant why he committed the act.
He explained to her that “I tend to do negative things when I am under the influence of marijuana.”
Magistrate Azore told the teen that it is not the custom of the court to imprison young people. She told him that sending him to jail would not help him.
She also told him that the court recognises that he did not waste its time and that he acknowledged he indeed needed help.
As such, the Magistrate fined the defendant ,000 on each of the charges against him and recommended that he receives counselling.
He was ordered to meet with a probation officer no less than three times per month for six months.
It was previously reported that Clarke pounced on the Virtual Complainants (VC) from behind. He placed a knife to the neck of one of the VCs before relieving them of the valuables.
The matter was reported to the Police and CCTV footage showed the defendant carrying out the act. As such, he was arrested and charged with the offence.
Clarke apologised to the VCs in open court.