A badly written police statement delayed the charge of causing death by dangerous driving from being read yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to Christopher Rogers whose driving allegedly resulted in the death of Christopher Crawford.
When the matter was called up before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton, she noted that the statement contained errors which needed to be fixed and so the police officer in the matter was told to correct his statement.
After some time, Police Prosecutor Stephen Telford informed the court that the time was too short for the statement to be written and he made an application for the matter to be heard today. This was then granted. Telford then asked the court for the summary charge of driving an uninsured motor vehicle to be read to Rogers.
Rogers pleaded guilty to the charge which reads that on August 21 on Mandela Avenue, he drove motor vehicle PLL 6787 while not being insured for third party risk.
Telford said that on the day in question, the defendant was driving vehicle PLL 6787 at 5:30 hours south along the eastern side of Mandela Avenue when he was involved in an accident.
He said that Rogers was then arrested and based on investigations, it was discovered that the certificate of insurance had expired.
He was subsequently charged with the offence. Attorney Hukumchand represented Rogers and told the court that the vehicle belonged to a friend of the young man who told him that the documents were in order.
In his plea of mitigation, Hukumchand said that his client admits his negligence in not checking the documents and placed himself at the mercy of the court. Rogers was then fined $35,000 or six months imprisonment.
However, when his attorney tried to secure bail on the other matter, he was informed by Magistrate Octive-Hamilton that it was put down for today and the application will be heard when it is called.
Hukumchand then questioned the authority of the police to keep Rogers beyond the 72-hour period stipulated by law and said that it constituted a constitutional breach of his rights.
To this Magistrate Octive-Hamilton said that the attorney needed to approach the High Court which deals with constitutional motions.
Crawford of Mahdia lost his life when the vehicle he was in, which was driven by Rogers, collided with another pinning him in the front seat.
