Western Bureau: Despite his impassioned plea for mercy on grounds that his imprisonment would mean “financial and personal devastation” for his family, American Thomas Workman was on Wednesday fined more than $300,000 and sentenced to six months behind bars for trying to export ganja.

Workman was an outgoing American Airlines passenger destined for Miami, where he resides with his wife and child, when he was stopped and searched at the airport’s security checkpoint last Thursday.

His luggage was found to contain 30 pounds of ganja and he was later arrested and charged for possession of, dealing in and attempting to export the substance.

When he appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, his attorney Clayton Morgan told the court that Thomas was responsible for the financing of his 17 year-old brother’s college education and the care of his sick mother. He added that his client was sorry for what he had done, and asked that he be granted mercy.

“He is sorry and he apologizes to the country. He now knows what the risks are in getting himself involved in matters of this nature. It must be ignorance or desperation, or both, that make people do these things,” Morgan said.

“I would urge your honour to let mercy flow, and not give him a custodial sentence so that he will return to his mother and his family.”

Having concluded his submission, Morgan asked the court to hear what the 37 year-old businessman had to add in his defence.

“I know what I did was wrong and stupid, but I beg for mercy,” Workman, who read from a piece of paper, told the court.

He argued that going to prison would be “devastating personally and financially” and he said the and his family would most certainly lose their home.

Further, he said his wife and child would not be able to pay the bills since there was no “cash reserves to support the family”.

But judge Paulette Williams, who presided over the matter, was not moved by Workman’s plea for mercy.

“You are a grown man. You took a calculated chance, and you got caught,” judge Williams told him.

“You cannot come into our country and break our laws and expect that I will pat you on the back and say go home to mommy…”

For possession of the drug, Workman was fined $15,000 or two months. For dealing in it, he was fined $96,000 or four months. And for attempting to export it, he was fined $192,000 or six months and sentenced to a mandatory six months in prison.