A 19-year-old Sandys man pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge in Magistrates' Court last week.

Spencer Wood, of Sound View Road, was arrested by Police last November for being in possession of 3.55 grams of cannabis and a tool used to grind the drug.

Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the court that on the night of November 11 Police found a car parked at Camden House.

He said Police searched the property and found a jacket on the balcony which contained a “twist of dope”.

When they contacted the owner of the vehicle, they were told that the woman's son, Wood, was “on a date” and had taken the car.

She contacted him by telephone and he presented himself to Police at Botanical Gardens where he said he had been walking with his date.

Wood admitted to Police that the drugs were his and the wooden device was used to “grind the weed”.

When asked by Mr. Mahoney if he knew cannabis was illegal in Bermuda, Wood had replied that he went to school in Canada and the Police there “did not bother with that stuff”.

In sentencing Acting Magistrate Mark Pettingill told Wood that he would take his age and his guilty plea into consideration and fined him $500 for possession and $500 for being in possession with equipment intended for misuse of the drug. He has until April 21 to pay the fine.

Wood was represented by Richard Horseman.

In another matter, two outstanding traffic fines were presented against Wood.

He was fined $25 for driving without lights and $270 for speeding at 58 kph in August, 2003.