Pilot pays up

LIAT pilot and admitted drug trafficker Keith Richard Otway Allen escaped a long prison term and should be back home in St Vincent and the Grenadines today after paying fines totalling $1/4 million yesterday.
The fines were about twice the value of the 65 pounds of cannabis which Allen was arrested for smuggling into Barbados on November 23.
The sentence, handed down by Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell in the District “F” Magistrates’ Court, brought an end to a matter that featured two Methodist preachers appearing as character witnesses for the pilot, and several adjournments after Allen’s guilty plea.
Through his attorney Sir Richard Cheltenham, Allen (pictured here leaving the court) paid the fines as is evidenced by the receipt from the court.