Former tenants accused of house break-in

A man and a woman accused of a $1.5M house break-in were on Monday placed on $75,000 bail each when they made their appearance before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

It is alleged that between April 11 and October 28 at Georgetown, Orwin Lowe,  39, and Judy Allen, 59, both of 33 Norton Street, Wort-manville, Georgetown,  broke and entered the dwelling house of Merlie McCurdy and stole therein a television, a computer, CD players, and a number of other household items to the total value of $1.5M, property of the said Merlie McCurdy.

The jointly charged duo was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge of break and enter and larceny when it was read to them by the acting chief magistrate.

Attorney-at-law Patrice Henry who represented the defendants told the court that his clients were once tenants of the virtual complainant (VC) and because the parties didn’t always get along this baseless and trumped-up charge was fabricated against them by McCurdy.

Stating that he did not wish to get into the details of the case and would prefer to leave it for the trial, Henry made a bail application for his clients.

He told the court that his clients have  no previous convictions, pose no risk of flight, have fixed addresses, and have been cooperating with the police in their investigations.

The lawyer stressed that his clients are innocent of the charge and they will willingly return to court to vindicate their names of the charge.

Prosecutor Lionel Harvey in giving the facts of case told the court, however, that the former tenants of the complainant waited for the window of opportunity to open when the VC was not at home and invaded,  removing the items stated in the charge.

According to Harvey, the police were then summoned to the scene and after conducting investigations Lowe and Allen were subsequently arrested and charged for the offence.

The prosecution had no objection to the two being admitted to bail.
The duo was later granted their pretrial liberty in the sum of $75,000 each and ordered to return to court on November 1 for statements.