Peck, who has been in the Department for 22 years is staring down a 5 year sentence after he was convicted of firearm offences at the Magistrate's Court this afternoon.

Viewers may remember the sensational case of Peck and his wife who were busted at their home on Currasow Street on January 19 of last year with unlicensed and prohibited firearms and ammunition.

Peck's case was particularly scrutinized because it divided the Police Department's Eastern Division. The Gang Suppression Unit said that he needed to be charged, while the senior rank and file refused to support the GSU on that action.

As we reported, at around 6:30 a.m. on that day 53 weeks ago, the GSU raided his house, and Peck handed over his police issued glock 9mm pistol with 13 live rounds of ammunition. The officers continued their search and inside a chest of drawers, they found 8 live rounds of .45 ammunition which is prohibited.

Under the bed, they found 2 knapsacks: one had 23 live rounds of 9 mm ammo, 18 twelve-gauge cartridges and 2 empty glock magazines. The other bag contained six 9mm rounds, four .38 rounds, and three 12-gauge cartridges.

Police arrested and charged him with keeping an unlicensed firearm, keeping unlicensed ammunition, and keeping prohibited ammunition. Peck and his wife were arraigned for them, but the charges were withdrawn against both. To everyone's surprise, a new court book was prepared for Peck only where he was charged for 2 counts of keeping unlicensed ammunition, and 1 count of keeping prohibited ammunition.

The case went to completion before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith where Peck admitted that the items were found in his possession. His defence was - and had always been - that they were in his possession for operational purposes as a police officer.

He claimed that the prohibited .45 ammunition were picked up after a gang raid, which he claims was found property. For the 12-gauge cartridges, he claimed that they came into his possession because he used a service issue shotgun rifle as part of an operation in the past. That claim was bolstered by Sgt. Randy Sanchez who testified that officers were allowed to take home high-powered weapons after operations in the event that they needed to conduct future operations at a moment's notice. As to the .38 ammunition, he also claimed that he got them when he was using a .38 weapon, back when the department was not issuing 9mm pistols to officers. His attorney, Simeon Sampson, seized the opportunity to show that Peck should be exempted from being found guilty of the offences because he had them in his possession as an officer of the law.

Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lynn-Vidal managed to show that Peck was a civilian just like everyone else and therefore he was guilty of the offences. She argued that he should have handed in the .45 ammunition, same for the cartridges. The DPP argued that once again, he held on to them as if though, by virtue of being a police officer, he could continue to lawfully hold on to them. As to the .38 ammunition, DPP Vidal showed the court that Peck had these items from the 1990's, and they were literally gathering dust under his bed, which was unlawful.

After reviewing all evidence, Chief Magistrate Smith found him guilty of all charges. He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years for some of the ammunition and 5 years for the others. Usually, the Magistrate immediately passes sentences on persons convicted of these offences, but in this particular instance, Simeon Sampson asked the court to give him until Friday to prepare a mitigation plea. It is unclear at this time how that plea will affect his sentence, since normally, he would have been given his 5 years to be served concurrently with the other 3-year sentences.