Two men were yesterday each fined $75,000 after a city magistrate found them guilty of attempting to break and enter a police officer’s vehicle.
Bertie Gulliver, a taxi driver, and Albert De Freitas, called ‘Ulric,’ who is a fisherman, were found guilty of the charge, which stated that they committed the crime on January 23rd, in the vicinity of the Kitty seawall.
If either man fails to pay the fine, he will have to serve one month in prison.
De Freitas, in an unsworn statement from the prisoners’ dock, said it was a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was related that his son, Albert De Freitas Jr., who was called as a witness on his father’s behalf, had testified that the police officer habitually harassed his father.
However, in handing down her verdict, Magistrate Judy Latchman described De Freitas Jr. as being an unhelpful witness in his father’s case.
Additionally, Mag-istrate Latchman said she was satisfied that Gulliver’s role in the crime surpassed him just being present. She added that she believed Gulliver acted in the capacity of getaway driver for De Freitas.
After the magistrate found the two men guilty, their lawyer Jed Vasconcellos, who appeared in association with Nigel Hughes, related that De Freitas, 51, is the sole breadwinner of his household while Gulliver, 66, suffers from a health condition. Observing that the men had no negative antecedents, the magistrate ordered them to pay a fine of $75,000 each or serve an alternative sentence of one month in jail. “I don’t want to see you back in this court ever again,” she further told them.
A visibly happy De Freitas offered a simple thank you to the magistrate for leniency in her ruling.
De Freitas, who is known to the court, has other matters of a similar nature pending.
