A taxi driver yesterday lost his only source of making an honest living and was also fined a total of $33,600, over seven pounds of ganja that he claimed belonged to a passenger.

Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey ordered Derrick Rowe’s motorcar forfeited to the state, apparently because of his insistence that the weed did not belong to him, but to a passenger who fled the vehicle when it was stopped by the police along Lyndhurst Road in St Andrew.

Moments before he pleaded guilty to possession of and trafficking ganja, Rowe, 47, insisted that he was not the owner of the weed that was found in a black bag.

But Pusey told him that he could not absolve himself from the crime as he stood to benefit from transporting the ganja and knew that it was in his car.

“It is not mine,” Rowe said repeatedly, during the exchange with the magistrate.

“You can stay and pretend that you don’t know about it but you’re guilty of having it in your car so tell me why I shouldn’t send you to prison for three years,” said Pusey.

“I am not saying that I didn’t know about it but it wasn’t mine and I am asking for leniency,” Rowe replied.

“Well since nothing belonged to you, I am going to forfeit your car to the state,” Pusey said after sentencing Rowe.

Rowe was fined $11,200 or six months in prison for possession of ganja and $22,400 or six months on the other charges.

Pusey also ruled that Rowe serve a total of 12 months in prison if he did not pay the fine for dealing in ganja.

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