Soldiers retreat from imprisonment for being AWOL from camp

Two soldiers from the Bermuda Regiment have been given suspended prison sentences for missing military training.

Privates Marcus Shawn Bean and Adrian Charles Benjamin skipped a combined total of more than 40 sessions.

Army chiefs decided the pair had failed to attend once too often and should be dealt with by magistrates. Crown counsel Cindy Clarke said Bean, 25, enlisted in December, 2003 and has 28 months to serve in the Regiment ? but missed 20 sessions between March and September, 2005.

Benjamin, 20, did not attend 21 sessions between April and September this year, the court heard. Bean, of Red Coat Lane, St. George?s, admitted a charge of failing to complete military duty.

He told the court: ?I?m very sorry that I did not attend.?

When Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said the defendant seemed to have no intention of attending training, Bean added: ?I know I?ve done wrong, but I will do better next time.?

Benjamin, of Field View Lane, Pembroke, admitted failing to attend military duty and another of failing to complete extra duty in July. He also apologised to the court and added: ?I mean to make up for it.?

But Mr. Warner said he had the chance to make amends by doing the 30 days extra training.

Benjamin, who has 17 months left to serve, was fined a total of $1,500 and handed a six months? suspended jail sentence. Mr. Warner refused a request from Benjamin for extra time to pay the fine and said the defendant was ?wasting my time?.

Bean was fined $1,000 and also received a suspended six-month term. He also admitted driving without a licence and giving false statements to the Police, both on February 27, and was fined another $400.

Alcohol had role in cycle crash

A motorcycle rider ended up crashed and unconscious after trying to ride his bike having drunk a few beers early the same day.

Police officers found Duarte Pacheco, 31, lying beside a black-coloured motorbike at the scene of a single vehicle crash on North Shore Road near its junction with East Point Lane in Hamilton Parish on June 26.

Pacheco had been knocked out and was taken to hospital were he regained consciousness and was able to speak to officers and admitted to them that he had drunk a few beers that day.

Appearing before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner at Magistrates? Court this week, Pacheco, of Cobbs Hill Road, Warwick, pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol and was fined $1,000 and disqualified from driving any vehicle for 12 months.

Driver insults cops after traffic stop

Insults were made against Police officers after a Smith?s Parish man was stopped at the roadside by a patrol car while he was driving an Opel car.

But Kevin David Shield, 32, denied that he threatened to ?cut up? the Police as they handcuffed him and put him in a police van under suspicion of a motoring offence.

When he appeared at the Magistrates Court in Hamilton, Shield pleaded guilty to using offensive language against the arresting officers at Mango Bay Road, Sandys Parish, on August 17.

But the court was told he had spoken out because he felt he had been provoked by the way he was being dealt with by the Police.

Crown Counsel Nicole Smith told the court that Shield had said to the arresting officers: ?This is a f***ing waste of tax payers money. Why don?t you f*** off back to your own country you limey f***.?

Shield was asked by the officers to provide a breath sample but is alleged to have said: ?This is police brutality. I?ll cut you up.?

The court was told that Shield, of Somersall Road, Smith?s Parish, admitted he had used a few choice words but felt that he was being done an injustice, had stopped his profanity once he had been handcuffed and denied threatening to ?cut up? the Police.

Shield was given 30 days to pay a fine of $1,600 for using offensive language.