Shelly Wilson's cocaine habit highlighted a lack of drug rehabilitation services for women, Magistrates' Court heard yesterday.

Wilson, 31, of Pembroke, was found with two small, glass bottles that contained cocaine residue, said Crown counsel Koshea Scott.

Ms Scott said Police stopped Wilson's car at the National Tennis Stadium at 5.30 a.m. on March 17. They found the bottles with residue inside a blue bag that Wilson was trying to hide under her car seat. Wilson said the bottles were her crack pipes.

Wilson also pleaded guilty to stealing a wallet from a woman at the Beach bar on Front Street. Police stopped Wilson after she dropped the wallet when leaving the Beach. She admitted to Police she had stolen the wallet for her drug habit.

“Crown believes there should be some element of drug rehabilitation, which would be best for this woman,” Ms Scott said. “But with the closing of the woman's facility this poses a problem.”

Acting Senior Magistrate William Francis, accepting both charges related to a drug problem, set bail at $750. Wilson agreed that she needed help. Ms Scott said the Turning Point method would be best for Wilson.

A young man who said he took his relative's car for a “joy ride” was fined in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Justin Ingemann, 21, of St. George's, pleaded guilty to driving an uninsured, unlicensed car.

Crown counsel Koshea Scott said Ingemann had been driving on Wilkinson Avenue towards North Shore on June 16 when Police noticed the car was having mechanical problems. They discovered the vehicle belonged to Norman Ingemann, a relative of the accused. The defendant was taken to St. George's Police Station and charged.

“At the time I got in the car and just took it for a joy ride,” Ingemann told Acting Senior Magistrate William Francis. Mr. Francis fined him $2,500.

Travis Stevens' patience ran out with the young men popping wheelies outside his house.

He struck one of them in the face with a helmet, splitting his lip and dislodging a tooth.

But yesterday Acting Senior Magistrate William Francis gave Stevens an absolute discharge, saying he had been provoked.

Stevens, 39, of St. David's, had pleaded guilty to causing bodily harm to Ricky James Foggo on March 17.

“I was strongly mentally and physically provoked by the individual Foggo and two of his friends,” Stevens told Mr. Francis in Magistrates' Court.

“They had been popping wheelies on the hill by my house and my windows are right on the road. I asked them to stop poppin' the auxiliary cycles but they wouldn't listen.

“I called one of their fathers and later the son came and told me off for calling him. He went off and did another wheelie and he came back and said what are you going to do about it and I gave him two boxes.”

Crown counsel Koshea Scott said Stevens hit the complainant Ricky James Foggo with a helmet. When Police arrived, Stevens told them that Mr. Foggo and his friends were rude.

Mr. Francis, while accepting Stevens had been provoked, reminded him to control his temper.

Lawyer Larry Scott has repaid a debt to former United Bermuda Party Cabinet Minister John Irving Pearman - but he still owes half the legal fees, the Supreme Court heard.

His lawyer, Delroy Duncan, asked the court last week for time to finish paying the remainder of the funds.

Mr. Scott paid a total of $107,000 to Mr. Pearman.

Mr. Pearman had backed a loan of $100,000 when Mr. Scott was starting his law firm in 1994.

As reported in The Royal Gazette, Mr. Scott borrowed $100,000 from Mr. Pearman, but was unable to meet the payments on his two $50,000 overdrafts with the Bank of Butterfield.

Mr. Pearman, who acted as guarantor, was forced to take over the debt when he defaulted on repayments.