NASSAU- A magistrate on Tuesday fined a man $200 for driving without a mask.
Police stopped Bernard Cooper as he drove on West Bay Street around 11:35pm on July 9.
The officers asked Cooper why he wasn’t wearing a mask. They arrested him after he said that didn’t have one.
It’s mandatory to wear masks in public but you don’t need one while driving alone.
Cooper admitted to failing to follow the mask requirement when he appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes.
The magistrate told Cooper that he was surprised that police did not charge him with breaking the 10pm to 5am. curfew.
He advised Cooper to keep his mask visible when driving. Cooper paid the fine to avoid spending one month in prison.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Forbes granted another man an absolute discharge after he admitted to not wearing a mask at Arawak Cay.
Police arrested Timothy, 50, of Symonette Street, for not wearing a mask while at Arawak Cay on July 12 at 7:10pm.
Timothy said that he had walked across the street from his mother’s fruit stall to get a cup of ice.
According to Timothy, police had singled him out as he wasn’t the only person without a mask.
Magistrate Forbes didn’t impose a penalty on Timothy as police had kept him in custody for two days.
