Ex-prison officer fined $13,000 for smuggling marijuana into prison

AN ex-prison officer convicted earlier this week of smuggling marijuana into the prison has been spared a jail term.

Visham Maharaj, 56, was fined $13,000 by Magistrate Avion Gill. He will serve two years simple imprisonment in default.

Maharaj was before Gill charged with two counts of possession of 386.3 grammes of marijuana which he took into the Maximum Security Prison, Arouca, on October 27, 2018.

At the time, he had 29 years of service as a prison officer but has since resigned.

Gill heard evidence that Maharaj entered the prison at about 8 pm to take up his shift when the drugs were found concealed in a lunch bag. After it was found by his senior, Maharaj claimed it was given to him by three people to take into the prison and if he failed to do so, he and his family would be killed.

He testified he was threatened with a gun and shown photographs of himself, his family and their home and decided to take the marijuana into the prison and resign his position. He claimed prison officers were being killed for not co-operating by taking prohibited items into the prison.

Although she convicted him, Gill said from his evidence, Maharaj raised a defence of “duress” but he should have reported it to his seniors.

His attorneys, Israel Khan, SC, and Arissa Maharaj pleaded for leniency, saying he was an exemplary prison officer before the incident and had not been charged with trafficking but simple possession and he had co-operated with the police.

The State was represented by Candice Batson.