After being forced to adjourn the trial into the Customs House $10M robbery on several occasions within the last few months, owing to the absence of the prosecution’s main witness, Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton on Wednesday set March 26 next year as the final date.
When the matter was called in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court the prosecution was absent and attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman who was the defence counsel on record for one of the accused informed the court that he was withdrawing from the matter.
According to Hanoman, the accused, Gerald Andrew Gilbert has not been keeping in contact with him, so he wanted his name to be withdrawn.
The magistrate then announced that she was setting March 26 as the final date.
Gilbert of Lot 14C of Shell Road, Kitty and Selwyn Bobb called `Brother’ of Lot 3916 South Ruimveldt Gardens are accused of robbing Shawn Semple at gunpoint of $10,327,497, which belonged to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on May 27, 2005. The incident occurred at Customs House on Main Street and the two were customs officers stationed there.
On June 10, 2005 after intense investigations the duo was charged with the sensational robbery. They made an appearance before Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan and were remanded to prison. The matter was then assigned to Magistrate Bertlyn Reynolds who released the duo on $90,000 bail on June 22.
The statements for the case were served in July and the trial set for August.
Almost every month after this the magistrate announced a new date owing to different obstacles.
Police alleged that the duo armed with guns invaded Customs House on Main Street sometime after closing hours when monies collected for the day were being taken up to the vault. A bag containing the cash was grabbed from Semple and the two then reportedly made good their escape.
Following the incident investigations were carried out by police and the two defendants were arrested and charged.
The case was plagued by numerous delays and it hit another hurdle after it had to be reassigned to another court after Magistrate Reynolds left the magistracy. Following this, the Office of the Chief Justice said in a statement that the magistrate was off the bench because of a personal issue which must be considered by the Judicial Service Commission.
Then in February this year, some eighteen months after a trial date, the case began before Magistrate Octive-Hamilton with the testimony of Nigel Williams, an employee of Customs House.
However his testimony was stopped short after repeated objections by attorney-at-law Mark Waldron, representing Bobb, over the evidence Williams was giving.
