Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan yesterday refused bail to two men who allegedly carried out a brazen robbery at a doctor’s Camp Street clinic just over a week ago and another man who was charged with them on another robbery charge.
According to the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court reports, Marlon Rodney and Lloyd Primo, being armed with guns, robbed Dr Balwant Singh on January 6, after they barged into his Camp Street clinic. The men, along with Alfie Garraway, are also accused of robbing a man of a large sum of money on January 10.
Rodney and Primo both of whom reside at 71 Norton Street Lodge, and Garraway were not required to plead to the indictable charge of robbery under arms. Rodney and Garraway were also charged jointly with robbery under arms in another case. They were also not required to plead to these charges.
Rodney and Primo allegedly robbed Singh of $95,000 and a cellular phone all to the total value of $160,000. It was reported that two gunmen barged into the doctor’s office just as he was finishing up his clinic and robbed him. Reports were that the men had an accomplice posing as a patient and shortly after entering the clinic they sprung into action. Armed with high-powered weapons the two men confronted the staff and forced them to the back of the clinic. Dr Singh, who was with a patient at the time, heard the commotion, went to investigate and walked right into the gunmen, who ordered him back into his office. There, they told him to lie face down and stripped him of the stated items and other valuables.
In the court’s second case against the men, they are accused of robbing Dwayne Anderson of $225,000, one cellular phone and a Guyana Power and Light identification card, at gunpoint, all to the value of $309,000.
Attorney-at-law Mark Waldron, who is representing the men, told the court that an identification parade was conducted on Monday and that the matter is more far-reaching than that put before the court. Waldron said Garraway told him that an identifiable police officer went into the ID room and instructed witnesses on who to point out. He said he does not believe that the law identifies anything of that nature in an ID parade.
Walrdon also said that he is representing Garraway in another matter before the court and when he was on bail he never missed a fixture. He also said he does not believe that the right persons were identified this time. Waldron urged the prosecutor to use her office to conduct an internal investigation into the matter his client told him about.
In her submission Police Prosecutor Maxine Graham asked that the men be refused bail based on the seriousness of the offence and on the fact that a weapon was used and it has not yet been recovered. Garraway, she said, has other matters before all of the courts and the men were all positively identified at an ID parade. Graham added that the allegation made by counsel that a constable would go into a room in front of a senior officer was surprising.
The men were ordered to appear at Court 2 on January 22.
