A Mahaicony resident accused of two armed robbery attacks in which he allegedly stole over $4 million in property, including a car, was remanded to prison yesterday.
Magistrate Judy Latchman denied bail to Leonard Moriah, of 275 Zes Kinderen Village, Mahaicony.
Moriah was accused of robbing Samuel Harripaul of a US green card, medical supplies, valued at US$2,500, two gold chains valued $200,000, a gold band valued $300,000, five gold rings valued $400,000 and other items, all totalling $1,710,000 on March 20, at Amla Avenue, Prashad Nagar.
It was further alleged that on the same day, at the said location, he robbed Omeshwar Harripaul of a Toyota wagon, valued $2.5M, a wrist watch valued $15,000 and a BlackBerry torch valued $60,000, all totalling $2,575,000.
He was not required to plead to the charges when he appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Moriah was further charged with having a .45 round of ammunition in his possession on March 20, at Norton Street, Werk-en-Rust, without being the holder of a firearm licence. He pleaded not guilty to this charge.
Moriah’s attorney, Dexter Todd, asked that his client be granted bail in a reasonable sum, saying that he had no antecedents and he had been in police custody for over a week.
Police Sergeant Vishnu Hunt objected to bail, noting that the offences were non-bailable ones unless special reasons are provided to the court. He further noted that a gun was used to carry out the robberies and the value of the articles mentioned in the charge. Hunt also said that the defendant may not return to court to attend trial and that the defence counsel did not provide any special reasons to the court why the defendant should be bailed.
In response, Todd said that his client was charged with bailable offences and further that he had been kept in police custody longer than 72 hours, violating his constitutional rights.
The magistrate, however, remanded Moriah and ordered him to return to court on April 18.
