Barbara Gayle, Star Writer

Fines totalling $55,000 were slapped on Negril businessman Carl Jackson after he was found guilty of illegal usage of water and trespassing on the works of the National Water Commission.

After a trial in the Savanna-la- Mar Resident Magistrates' Court, Westmoreland, Resident Magistrate Sheron Barnes found Jackson guilty.

Jackson was fined $50,000 or two months' imprisonment for breaching section 25 of the NWC Act in relation to the illegal usage of water. He was fined $5,000 or three months for breaching section 3 of the Public Utilities Act in relation to trespassing on the works of the NWC.

Clerk of Courts, Stephen Smith, led evidence from NWC's Revenue Recovery Officer, Horace Downer, that he and his team along with police officers were checking premises, along Beach Road in Negril between September and December 2014. They went to Jackson's premises, which has two restaurants and a dwelling house, on October 1, 2014. The meter on the premises was assigned to Jackson.

Locked position

The NWC team found that there was a valve close to the meter in the locked position. Yet, when the faucets on the premises were checked, water flowed through them. Further checks and an excavation of the land, found pipes leading from the premises to the water main on the street. These pipes led to the restaurants and the house.

Downer told the court that Jackson's highest water bill for the last two years was $1,600, which was regarded as regular usage for a family of four but not for two restaurants and a house.

Jackson contended that he was getting water from tanks on the premises, but the NWC representatives and District Constable Collin Gordon said they did not see any tanks. They said when the pipes to the main were disconnected, there was no water on the premises.

"You come to arrest me as a rasta," Jackson said to DC Gordon during cross-examination.

Gordon replied "I have no problem with you being a rasta. You were doing an illegal act so I do my job."

Jackson lived on the premises and operated the Reggae Man Vegetarian Restaurant.

Cynthia Smith, who occupied the other restaurant, was also charged jointly with Jackson, but she was found not guilty of the charges. She explained that she rented the restaurant from Jackson. She said she paid her rent and contributed to the water bill.

"I always pay my bill," Jackson said in his unsworn statement form the dock. He said further "anybody could have connect that water."

After Jackson was found guilty, in answer to the RM, he said he had now regularised the situation with the NWC.

The maximum sentence for illegal usage of water under the NWC Act is $250,000 or three months; and that for Trespassing on the Works of NWC under the Public Utilities Act is $10,000 or 12 months.