KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two men were each fined $30,000 on Tuesday for transporting large quantities of coconuts without the documentation required under the Agricultural Produce Act.

Appearing separately before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court were Marlon Gibbeson and Ricardo Hunter.

Gibbeson was intercepted by police while transporting 1,130 coconuts and was unable to produce a Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) receipt, which serves as proof of sale and ownership for agricultural produce and livestock. These receipts, issued through JAS receipt books, are available only to registered farmers and must be carried when transporting goods.

Gibbeson eventually turned up with the requisite receipt, according to police. However, Senior Parish Judge Paula Blake Powell explained that the law surrounding receipts was to prevent praedial larceny and that was why it mandated having the receipts while transporting the goods.

She added that having it after the fact, while it would help in his sentencing, did not absolve him of the crime he was charged with.

Gibbeson pleaded guilty and was fined $30,000.

When his case was called up, Hunter also pleaded guilty, explaining that he had not known about the requirement for a receipt and did not have one to show for the goods, which in his case included a quantity of bananas as well as 150 coconuts.

The young man indicated that most of the produce was from his father’s property.

However, the judge stressed the Ministry of Agriculture’s heightened efforts to curb praedial larceny and reminded the court that the maximum penalty under the Act is $3 million.

Hunter was also fined $30,000.

— Dana Malcolm