A man said to have been driven to rob a bar with a fake handgun by a drugs problem was on Tuesday jailed for almost four years.
Justice Marlene Carter told Tyrell Smith that he had “lost his way” as a result of his drug abuse.
But she said he “could have been killed or killed someone else or caused serious physical harm” to other people.
Smith earlier pleaded guilty to robbery, use of a flare gun altered to look like a real handgun and theft of a bag and its contents.
Carter told the defendant, who appeared by video link while on remand in Northward Prison, that drugs had led him to a “lonely and piteous place” and that there were mitigating factors, but also ones that aggravated his offences.
Smith, who was masked to disguise his identity, struck at Island Bar on Dr. Roy’s Drive near its junction with Shedden Road in George Town just before midnight on 5 May.
He waved the ‘handgun’ – painted silver with tape around the grip to make it look more realistic – and stole a bag and its contents from two people inside the bar.
Carter said there was a “threat of violence” when he brandished the weapon and that robbery had exploited the “vulnerability of small premises”.
She added that the use of a mask and his attempt to dispose of potentially incriminating evidence, including the clothes he was wearing, were also aggravating factors.
But Carter said his admission of guilt had earned him a discount on his sentence, as had the drug dependency and his expression of remorse for the crime.
She added he had also taken a course designed to rehabilitate offenders while on remand.
Carter said Smith also had a young daughter and that the court had been told she would be affected by her father being behind bars.
But she said he should have considered the impact on the child before he carried out the offences.
Carter added, “Matters of this sort are not highly relevant when someone has committed a serious crime such as the ones before this court.”
Smith was jailed for three years and eight months for the armed raid, three years and four months for the firearms offence and 24 weeks for the theft.
Carter ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
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