Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton yesterday remanded to jail a 39-year-old taxi driver charged with Wednesday’s gunpoint attack on an Albouystown man who was robbed of more than $400,000 in cash and a cell phone.
The allegation against Michael Trimm of 173 Second Road, Kaneville, is that on January 30 at Brickdam, Georgetown, while he was in company with others who were armed with a gun he robbed Ronald Stanley of $400,000 cash along with a cell phone valued $17,000.
The man was not required to plead to the indictable charge after it was read to him at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
In presenting the police facts to the court, Prosecutor Lionel Harvey said that on the day the VC was in the vicinity of Water Street when he was approached by the accused and his assailants who were in motor car HB 9365 which was being driven by the accused. The prosecutor said that the accused and his accomplices approached the man with handguns pretending to be police officers and they dealt him a lash to his head before forcing him into the car and driving away.
The articles which the VC was carrying at the time were taken away during the robbery, the prosecutor concluded.
After narrating the facts to the court, the prosecutor strongly objected to bail on the grounds that the man posed a flight risk and if granted bail it is likely that he will not return to court.
The accused in his defence related to the magistrate that his vehicle was hijacked by the men and he was beaten up and forced into the car.
The defendant added that the men subsequently collected the VC along with him and drove into a burial ground where they conducted the act.
The magistrate ruled in favour of the prosecution and the accused was remanded to prison until February 10.
