Western Bureau: After her sob story about a sick mother failed to sway the resident magistrate, British resident Ngozi Nobi was slapped with a six-month prison term and fined $266,000 for trying to export more than 54 pounds of ganja.

Nobi told the Montego Bay court that she had opted to join the illicit drug trade to raise money to care for her sick mother.

But a clearly unimpressed RM Valerie Stephens pointed out that in Britain, the state provided well for the sick and added that the action of the 26 year-old Briton smacked of a “greedy, big time” drug dealer.

“I can understand the anxiety you might have felt over the state of your mother’s condition but both you and I know that the state provides very, very well for the sick and invalid,” the judge told Nobi.

“But what concerns me, ma’am, is the 54 and a half pounds (of ganja). We’re not talking about 10 pounds and that, to me, smacks of a person (not in real need) but a greedy, big time drug dealer. So I have little sympathy for your plight.”

Earlier, Nobi’s attorney, Hugh Thompson had described his client as an intelligent, young woman who, in a desperate bid to earn money for her “ailing mother”, had tried to smuggle drugs.

He said his client, who is the only child for her mother, had perpetrated an “utterly stupid and criminal act” but asked that she be shown mercy.

“From listening to your lawyer, ma’am, you appear to be an intelligent, young woman and you were tempted to break the law because you found yourself in a situation with a sick mother,” judge Stephens responded. “But 54 and a half pounds is a lot of ganja… It is more than (the prescribed weight of) a packed suitcase, which is 44 pounds. If you had reached Heathrow, you would have been looking at 10 years easy.”

For possession of the drugs, Nobi was fined $15,000 or six months. For dealing in it, she was fined $87,000 or six months. And for attempting to export the drug, she was fined an additional $164,00 or six months and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at hard labour.

Nobi was caught with the substance inside her suitcase at the Sangster International Airport on May 24. She was on her way back to England at the time of the arrest.