Twenty seven year old Lancelot Flowers, who was fined one thousand five hundred dollars last week for handling a stolen motorcycle, was unable to avoid a custodial sentence today when he was found guilty of one count of keeping firearm without a gun license and 3 counts of keeping ammunition without a gun license.
Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie sentenced him to 3 years for each count with the stipulation that the sentences are to run concurrently, so Flowers will only serve 3 years.
She said she sentenced Flowers to 3 years instead of the minimum of 2 years because he had three types of ammunition. He was busted on April 19th, 2010.
Flowers, who was one of two suspects in a robbery which had just occurred, was riding his bicycle on Banak Road when he was spotted by the police. The police perused Flowers and caught him at the corner of Hyde's Lane and Cards Alley when he fell from his bicycle. When the police searched Flowers they found a 9 millimeter pistol with 9 rounds of ammunition in the right front pocket of his jeans pants.
In his defence, Flowers testified and claimed that the police had mistaken him for another man who was dressed in the same clothes he was wearing. Flowers was also charged with robbery, but that charge was struck out when the complainant, British National Ben Houghton, did not appear in court to testify.
