By Indarjit Seuraj Tuesday, August 5 2008

Two teenagers guilty of cheating at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) Communication Studies exam publicly apologised to their parents just moments before they were each sentenced to 100-hours of community service for the crime.

It was a lucky escape for Scott Joseph and Nyron Toney who pleaded guilty to having prior knowledge of the exam paper on a previous hearing on July 23.

Under the Caribbean Examination Council Act, they were each facing a maximum penalty of $1,000 and sixmonths imprisonment.

“Mommy, I’m very sorry for the embarrassment I have caused everyone,” Toney told his mother who stood behind him at the Tunapuna Second Magistrate’s Court.

Joseph followed, echoing the sentiments to his mother and father.

“I apologise for the embarrassment I have caused and I am sure that this won’t happen again,” Joseph said.

In passing sentence, Magistrate Adrian Dharmanie cited a judgment from retired Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma who had quashed a conviction imposed on a Canadian student for drug possession.

The appeal was upheld then as Sharma had agreed that the appellant was of impeccable character and was in pursuit of a professional degree.

Darmanie said although the prosecution had shown that the students obtained the exam paper from a man (referred to as Mr X) via e-mail and passed it around to their friends, there was no evidence to show that they actually paid for it.

And while he said the actions could not be condoned, he added that the teenagers’ reputations had already been tainted.

“They already have a taint on them whether or not a conviction is recorded,” the magistrate said.

The magistrate informed the teenagers, who were also left under the supervision of a probation officer for one year, to apply for the conviction not to be recorded against them.

Defence attorney Yaseen Ali, who represented Toney and Joseph, informed Dharmanie that the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) was awaiting his ruling to determine what course of action should be taken against the students.

In the case of a conviction in breach of the CXC Act, the statute also bars the accused from writing any CXC examinations for five years. In an interview afterwards, Ali said it was a fair sentence for the two students.

“I thought it was quite fair. I think the magistrate did his homework and came up with a good sentence,” Ali said. But despite the ruling, relatives of Joseph shouted expletives and threatened journalists outside the Tunapuna court.

Tempers flared when the teenagers as they ran away from the court in a bid to elude photographers. One relative swung at photographers.

“Don’t let me catch you in a dark corner...,” the relative warned the photographers.

The teenagers, students of the St Augustine Community College, were arrested in May, just days after writing the Communication Studies exam which had been leaked.

According to the facts read out in court, Toney, of Chaguanas, was apprehended at his home on May 13 after Fraud Squad detective Acting Sgt Gilbert Kennedy received information from the Ministry of Education that the examination had been leaked. Joseph, of Valsayn, was held three days later at his home.

Both students confessed to having the Communication Studies examination on May 7 and studying the paper before they wrote the exam the following day.

Twelve people have been charged with offences of having prior knowledge as well as larceny of the exam papers in the CXC ordinary and advanced levels.