Zero tolerance for crime against tourists

An Appeal Court judge yesterday made it clear that crimes against visitors in Tobago will not in any way be tolerated.

Justice Lionel Jones, presiding in the Tobago Court of Appeal with Justice Margot Warner, stressed that “we have to send the correct message” as the Court dismissed the appeal of Trinidadian Lincoln Samaroo and jailed him for two years beginning yesterday. Samaroo had already spent some two years the equivalent of three “jail” years — in remand prison awaiting the hearing of the appeal. “This court is disturbed that people from Trinidad could come to Tobago, where tourism is so important, and do this kind of thing,” declared Justice Jones. “It gives Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, a bad name. We have to send the correct message; we want this appellant and others to know that this type of thing will not be tolerated.” Samaroo, 38, then of Edinburgh, Chaguanas, was jailed for five years with hard labour by Senior Magistrate Marcia Ayres-Caesar in the Scarborough First Court on March 29, 2000. He had admitted to stealing US, British and TT currency and other personal items from a room at Patino’s Enchanted Water Guest House occupied by Roy William Green and his wife, on the very day — March 18 — that they had arrived in Tobago on holiday. Samaroo had appealed against the “severity” of the sentence.

The appellant was represented at yesterday’s appeal hearing by defence attorney Brian Debideen. Prosecutor Devan Rampe-rsad appeared on behalf of the State. The facts were that the couple had secured a black pouch containing, among other things, airline tickets and three different kinds of currencies. The following day, March 19, the Greens discovered the pouch and its contents missing. Old Grange Police were alerted, and Detective Insp Trevor Reid, then Sgt, and head of the Special Task Force, along with other officers, carried out a search at the guest house compound at Shirvan Road, Buccoo. Samaroo was also searched, but in both cases nothing was found. Samaroo’s Chaguanas home was later searched and $554 and a cell phone were handed over by his wife. Samaroo later gave a statement in which he confessed to stealing the items, and was subsequently charged by Insp Reid. Based on his confession, the black pouch was later recovered on the guest house compound minus the airline tickets. “One of the distasteful aspects of this case is that you came to Tobago, did your dirty act, and then went back to Trinidad, leaving people here to be put under suspicion,” Justice Warner noted as defence attorney pleaded unsuccessfully for leniency on behalf of the appellant.