Harish Narine Sugrim, owner of the Sugrim line of contracting services and auto sales, was yesterday granted bail to the tune of $1M when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to answer the charge of obtaining money by false pretence.

It is alleged that on October 8 at Corentyne, Harish Narine Sugrim of Five Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, Berbice, falsely obtained the sum of $10M from Kennard Gobin, pretending that an excavator sold to the said Kennard Gobin was a 320B excavator, knowing same to be false.

The 58-year-old Sugrim pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to him by the Acting Chief Magistrate.

Sugrim’s attorney argued that the complaint brought by the virtual complainant (VC) was not genuine since the VC waited until eight months had elapsed, from the time  of purchasing the excavator in October, before filing charges against his client.

“My Worship, I can’t imagine that anyone would purchase something as big as an excavator and not know that it was not what they wanted until eight months after. Under no terms can the VC now say that what he was sold was not in fact what he had intended to purchase,” the attorney said.

The defence counsel  said that his client had all the necessary documents to show that a genuine sale was made.

The VC, however,  explained to the court that indeed he had paid the $10M for and had accepted the excavator, but it was not until he had taken it into the interior to conduct his mining operations that he began encountering problems with the machine.

“My Worship, when I carry de machine in de bush it ain’t give me no proper service, it just stop wuk,” the VC said.

It was at this time that Gobin explained that after looking carefully at the brand of the excavator  he realised it was not the 320B brand for which he had paid $10M to Sugrim.  What the VC said he had received instead was a 320 flat brand which is not what he had requested from Sugrim in order to execute his job.

Gobin told the court that after checking it was discovered that Sugrim had  sprayed on 320B on a 320 flat excavator, thus giving the wrong impression of its true identity. Gobin further said that he did not move more swiftly on the matter because Sugrim was no stranger to him and had promised that he, [Sugrim] would have gotten him another one, but added that several  reports had been made previously at the Police Station.

Police Prosecutor Denise Griffith made no objection to bail.

In submitting his bail application, the lawyer said that his client had been previously placed on $50,000 station bail and  had fully cooperated with the police in their investigations.

Moreover he also reported to the police station on every occasion he was required to do so.

The lawyer asked that Sugrim be placed on reasonable bail, adding that prior to this incident he had enjoyed an unblemished record and posed no risk of flight.

When the amount of bail was announced, the attorney asked for a reduction but this application was denied by the magistrate.

The defendant was subsequently placed on bail in the sum of $1M and has to return to court on July 10.