Accused stolen property recipient on bail

The duo accused of breaking and entering the HBTV Channel 9 building and stealing a quantity of items were further remanded to prison, while another man who is accused of receiving some of the stolen items was granted bail.

The former security guard of HBTV Channel 9 Christopher Luther, 18, of Go Slow Avenue, La Penitence and his friend Ivan Garraway, 20, of Freeman Street, were jointly charged with two counts of break and enter and larceny, to which they have pleaded not guilty. While, Komal Maraj, the 23-year-old owner of an electronic repair store and car wash bay of De Abreau Street, Kitty, pleaded not guilty to the charge of receiving stolen property.

On their last court appearance the prosecution said that the equipment recovered from the robbery was already photographed and the prints were waiting to be developed. The prosecution had also told the court that the police had no difficulties in releasing the items to Channel 9. However, this was not done.

The Chief Executive Officer of HBTV Channel 9, Charles Griffith told the court yesterday that he came to find out whether or not the photographs for the equipment that was recovered were ready so that he could uplift the equipment. He said that the company is currently operating handicapped since it does not have the main equipment, which is currently lodged at the police station.

The magistrate ordered that Garraway and Luther be further remanded even though their lawyer Mohamed Zafar had told the court that the police statements implicating his clients in the offences were quite prejudicial. The men will appear back in court on December 30 next year.

Maraj was granted bail in the sum of $250,000 when his lawyers, Satyesh Kissoon and Adrian Thompson, petitioned the High Court.

Luther and Garraway denied that on December 9, they broke and entered the Transmission Room of HBTV Channel 9 and stole two video cameras, a computer, a DVD player and an audio mixer, all totalling $800,000 in value.

The two also denied that on December 15, they broke and entered the Editing Room of HBTV and stole a computer hard drive, a Sony camera, a keyboard, a mouse, a computer monitor and a Central Processing Unit (CPU), with a total value of $437,000.

Meanwhile, Maraj denied that on December 10, he received from Luther, a computer keyboard, a mouse, a CPU and a computer monitor, with a total value of $317, 000, the property of HBTV, knowing same to have been feloniously stolen.