Taxi driver remanded on armed robbery charge

A taxi driver was remanded to prison yesterday after he appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown court on an armed robbery charge.

Dane Madramootoo of Industry, East Coast Demerara, pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to him.
He is accused of robbing businesswoman, Kim Sarwan of cash and items at her home located at Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara, on April 20.

According to the prosecution, Sarwan was at her home when three men approached and pretended to be customers.

The men, being armed with handguns, proceeded to rob her of one Blackberry cellular phone valued $73,000, 25 sets of perfumes valued $250,000 and over $1 million. The total amount Sarwan was robbed amounted to over $1.5 million.

Madramootoo was refused bail because the prosecution objected on the grounds that the accused was positively identified by Sarwan and a dangerous weapon was used to commit the crime.

Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry then refused bail for Madramootoo and remanded him to prison.

His next court appearance is May 15. Another suspect was also arrested in  connection with the crime, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told this newspaper yesterday afternoon.