A Southampton man has been fined $800 after admitting possessing cocaine.

Joecoy Burrows, 24, appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to having 0.12 grams of the drug in his possession in Sandys on July 11.

Burrows was stopped and searched by Police on Long Bay Lane and arrested after they found a brown paper twist containing a suspected drug in his trousers. In court, Burrows said: “It was my boy’s funeral that day.”

He said he had borrowed the trousers and did not know drugs were in the pocket.

Magistrate Archibald Warner fined Burrows $800.

Also in court yesterday, a Devonshire man pleaded not guilty to possessing cannabis.

Russell Gibbons, 31, denied the offence, which allegedly occurred in Devonshire on November 4.

Mr Warner set bail at $2,000 and fixed a trial date of June 8.