MONTEGO BAY, St James — A British woman who was held for the second time in four years trying to smuggle cocaine out of the island, was fined $400,000 and sentenced to 18 months in jail, after pleading guilty to cocaine charges in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Carla Shaw, a 33 year-old unemployed waitress and mother of two children was arrested on November 15 at the Sangster International airport when she was found with 1lb 6.72 ounces of cocaine in her bra, as she was being processed for a flight to London.

The court heard that Shaw was also held in the island in 2007 on a similar charge and was subsequently fined and sent home after spending three months in jail.

She had also been arrested in Birmingham in 2003 for larceny, but attorney Adrian Dayes who appeared on her behalf told the court that her action had resulted from her desperation to provide for her children.

Shaw whose parents are Jamaicans was fined $150,000 or three months for possession of cocaine and $250,000 or three months for taking steps to export the drug. She was however admonished and discharged for dealing in cocaine.

Additionally, she will spend the next 18 months in jail, and if the fines are not paid, she will spend 21 months in prison.

Senior Resident Magistrate Vivienne Harris ruled that while the alternate sentences are to run concurrently, the sentences are to run consecutively, if the fines are not paid.