Three taxi drivers and a mechanic who were charged with stealing three vehicles were yesterday remanded to prison after the court heard that more charges for similar offences will soon be brought against them.
Justin DeSantos, 18; Joe Singh, 25; Kurt Shepard, 22, and Miguel Mattadin, 25, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court One and denied the three charges after they were read to them.
The first charge stated that on October 12th, 2019 at ‘C’ Field, Turkeyen, while being together, the four men stole a motor car valued $700,000 from Dwayne Simon.
It was further alleged that on September 23rd, 2019, at South Vigilance, East Coast Demerara, while being in the company of each other, the four men stole a motorcar valued $500,000 from Oswald Bento.
The final charge stated that on September 18th, 2019, at Diamond, while being together, the four men stole a Pitbull Minibus valued $4.1 million from Orlanda Angus.
DeSantos and Singh were represented by attorneys-at-law Paul Fung-a-Fat and Dexter Todd respectively while Shepard and Mattadin, who both revealed to the court that they are taxi-drivers from Kuru Kuru, were unrepresented.
In his application for bail, Fung-a-Fat told the court that his client, who is from Lot 47 Pearl, East Bank Demerara, is a mechanic who plans to enroll at the Government Technical Institute soon while Todd told the Court that Singh is from Lot 153 Kuru Kuru and has one child. He claimed that his client, who was in police custody since November 5th, was severely beaten by the police and forced to sign a statement. He further stated, that Singh’s wife after seeing the condition that her husband was in, asked the police officers to take him to hospital. Her request was denied at that time but at her insistence, Singh was taken to the hospital on Tuesday. Todd added that the police are in possession of his client’s medical report.
However, Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield told the court that the investigating rank, who was in court at that time, said that he was unaware that DeSantos had made a complaint. The rank, he said, also denied having a medical report in his possession and is unaware that he was hospitalized.
Mansfield objected to bail being granted to the four defendants saying that once investigations are completed, more charges will be brought against them for similar offences. He disclosed that apart from the minibus, a number of vehicle parts which belonged to stolen vehicles were recovered. In addition to that, he said, Shepard and Mattadin have pending matters at the Providence Magistrate’s court for similar offences.
He said on November 16th, ranks went to Kuru Kuru, Soesdyke Highway, where contact was made with DeSantos and Shepard. They were arrested and a search, which led to the discovery of the three vehicles at Shepard’s home, was conducted. Mansfield said a further search was carried out and they found a number of vehicle parts belonging to stolen vehicles. Mattadin and Singh were arrested during that search. He said at least six more statements are outstanding from the file.
The magistrate subsequently remanded the four defendants to prison and told them to make their next court appearance at the Providence, Vigilance and Sparendaam Magistrate’s Courts on November 18th, 21st and 20th respectively.
