A woman was fined $40,000 or six-months imprisonment for breaching a National Water Commission’s (NWC) metre.

The accused, Norian Parkinson, pleaded guilty to the offence of trespassing on the works of the NWC when she appeared before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday.

The allegations are that on July 22, the employees of the NWC noticed that the metre in Parkinson’s yard was tampered with and contacted the police, resulting in the heavily pregnant woman being arrested and charged.

Not fully understanding the charge, Parkinson told the court that she saw when the NWC came to her house and “cut off the water,” and a worker told her she needed to pay $52,000 to reconnect it, which she did the next day.

“Miss, when they said trespassing is not like you walk over the [NWC], it means that there’s a metre and somebody bypassed the metre and the water that is being used is not going through the metre,” the prosecution explained, adding that on May 18, 2021, the NWC turned off that metre for the first time.

Chiming in, Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague asked, “Were you aware that the Water Commission people turned off the water on the 18th of May, last year?”

“Yes, I was aware,” Parkinson said.

“So, you’re aware that the Water Commission people cut off the water, but water is flowing and you are receiving water,” the judge said.

After the judge informed Parkinson about the $40,000 fine, she asked her if two weeks is enough time to pay the fine, to which she answered yes.

However, after hearing this, her spouse rose and asked the judge to allow more time to pay because they have two children going to school come September.

“I’ll give you three weeks. You see why women need a strong man behind them? Everybody have them part fi play, you know,” Cole-Montague said, then wished the woman a safe delivery.