Sentencing of pilot postponed for DPP to make applications

Fri, Dec 20. 2011

A legal move by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) delayed yesterday’s sentencing of admitted drug trafficker, LIAT pilot Keith Richard Otway Allen.{{more}}

Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell was due to sentence Allen, 34, for possession, intent to supply, trafficking and importing 65 pounds of cannabis on November 23.

However, when the case was called in the District “F” Magistrates’ Court, she disclosed that Deputy DPP Donna Babb-Agard QC had requested an adjournment, so she could make applications regarding proceeds of crime.

As a result, the Vincentian will spend Christmas and New Year’s Day at Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds, while he awaits punishment. He will be sentenced on January 4.

Allen’s attorney Sir Richard Cheltenham QC, initially questioned the move after Smith-Bovell said there were “certain issues” which Babb-Agard wanted to address before his client was sentenced.

“There are certain applications she wants to make that she won’t be able to make after I sentence him,” the magistrate said.

Sir Richard then asked her to be “more explicit”, saying he was “very much in the dark”.

It was at that point that Smith-Bovell explained Babb-Agard’s intentions and said the Deputy DPP had already started the process.

The defence attorney expressed concern that Babb-Agard had not spoken to him about the matter, but said he would contact her.

Allen pleaded guilty to the four drug offences on December 2, a week after pleading not guilty at his first court appearance.

According to police, he arrived here on a LIAT flight from St Vincent on the night of November 23 and officers from the Drug Squad found two packages of marijuana in his pilot’s bag and another six packages in a pulley. The drugs were valued at $130,000.

Allen told police that he had been offered $5,000 to bring the drugs here. (The Nation)