A self-styled equal opportunity magistrate voiced his view that women as well as men should be conscripted to the Regiment in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said he believes in "equal rights, equal dues" after a man appeared in his court charged with skipping regimental duty while the Regiment was embodied during Hurricane Fabian.

Ricky Tyrone Saltus, 22, of South Shore Road in Warwick, told the court he had missed Regiment because he had to help his family. Saltus said he had two sisters aged 13 and 15 and a brother aged 14, and he had to help his single mother to support them and work to pay the bills.

"They told me report up there 21 days straight without pay," he told Mr. Greaves. "I'm missing out on a lot of money, sir."

Mr. Greaves asked a Regimental officer in the court when the Regiment would start conscription for women. "You invite them in but you force men," he said.

"I have no problem with conscription ...People should serve their country," said the magistrate, who added that he himself had once served in the Regiment. "But I'm a man who believes in equal rights, equal dues."

That being said, he informed Saltus: "You can't beat the law. You can run, but you can't hide."

He sentenced Saltus to three months imprisonment suspended for 25 months, as long as Saltus has left to serve in the Bermuda Regiment.