Appeal Court gets run-around

When Sadiq Mohammed returns to the Court of Appeal on Monday, he will have to bring his car insurance policy if he wants the court to return his suspended driving permit (DP). Mohammed was convicted of driving a vehicle without a DP or insurance, and as a result was fined and suspended from holding a DP for two years. He appealed his sentence and, when questioned by the appellate judges, he kept changing his answers to suit the questions. Mohammed (not the UNC Senator), admitted to Justices Roger Hamel-Smith and Ivor Archie that at the time he was arrested on June 19, 2002, he was not the holder of a DP nor had he owned the vehicle PBJ 1906. However, by the time he appeared before Magistrate Avason Quinlan, he had got himself a DP and subsequently owned his own car. But as a penalty for driving without a DP, Quinlan seized his DP and suspended him from driving for two years.

He wants the Court of Appeal to give him back his DP. Mohammed also told the court that he was not guilty of driving without a DP in 2002, but in 2001. He said it was for the 2001 offence that the police came to East Driver River in the Plannings, and arrested him. He said in 2001 a police sergeant arrested him for driving without a DP and had allowed him to go home with the promise that he would return to the police station, but he did not. The court noted that he never told the magistrate that story and that this was the first time he is making mention of it. When asked by Hamel-Smith if he now owns a car, he said yes, but claimed that the  car is parked up in a garage, suggesting that repairs are being done to it.

HS : Where is the car?
SM: In the garage.
HS: Do you have insurance for the car?
SM: Well, the car is in the garage. I suspended the insurance policy when the car went into the garage.
HS: Where do you work?
SM: San Fernando.
HS: How do you get there?
SM: The car. I have a driver.
HS: Well you have insurance for the car.
SM: Ah... ah have insurance.
HS: Then could you bring the insurance to court so that we can see it. SM: Well the car in the garage... the insurance?
HS: We will like to help you, but you must have insurance for the car.

Justice Hamel-Smith then adjourned the matter to April 19, with instructions to Mohammed that when he returns to court, he must bring his insurance with him. Mohammed represented himself, while attorneys Ronnie Noodoosingh and Roger Ramlogan were the Special Counsel for the State.

According to the facts, PC Lloyd Samaroo and other policemen had pursued Mohammed in a high-speed car chase to the Plannings at East Dry River, where Mohammed abandoned the car he was driving and ran off. The police ran after him and, following a short chase, they held Mohammed. It was later discovered that he was not the holder of a DP. The police became suspicious of Mohammed when he saw the police vehicle, stopped his car, turned around and sped off.