...how 3 cops made the switch

HOW COULD a fairly brand new Nissan Sunny car disappear from the Santa Cruz Police Station on the night of August 26, 2001, and return to the same station three weeks later in a dilapidated condition?

Answer: Because the car that was returned was not the one that was removed from the station.  In short, a car in good condition was switched for one that was old and battered. The mystery has sparked a full scale investigation now being conducted by Insp Christopher Lewis of the Barataria Police Station. His investigations so far have revealed that a car, PAS 2455, was removed from the station on the pretext that it was being taken to the Forensic Science Centre for inspection. Apart from the fact that Forensic does not open on Sundays, director of the Trinidad and Tobago Forensic Science Centre, Yolanda Thompson has stated categorically that their records indicate that no vehicle bearing registration number PAS 2455 was ever submitted to the Centre in 2001. Her letter was dated November 29, 2001, and addressed to Sgt Mongal Hazarie, one of the investigators. It was also discovered that a police Corporal arrived at the Morvant Police Station with a black Nissan Sunny, registration number unknown, from Forensic on the evening of August 27, the day after the Nissan Sunny vehicle was moved from the Santa Cruz Station.
The known facts are as follows:
(1) A black Nissan Sunny PAS 2455, in good condition, was removed from the Santa Cruz Police Station on August 26, 2001.
(2) On September 15, 2001, a black Nissan Sunny in dilapidated condition, registration number unknown, was removed from the Morvant Police Station by a wrecking service vehicle accompanied by a police Constable.  Its destination was the Santa Cruz Police Station, where it was lodged.

The wrecking service used is allegedly owned by the same policeman who had removed the Nissan from the Santa Cruz Station in the first place. Investigators believe that the Nissan Sunny which was removed from the Santa Cruz Police Station in August was switched and replaced with an older one with the same registration number, and that an older one purporting to be the same vehicle, was returned to the Santa Cruz Station three weeks later. They also believe that the car was used to carry out several illegal activities. Several police officers have given statements as to what transpired. They said they were told to write wrong information in the station diaries and also to say that Sgt Hazarie was the one who gave instructions for the removal of the vehicle.  But Sgt Hazarie’s statement totally contradicts this. A file on investigations into the car was submitted sometime ago to Snr Supt Maurice Piggott, head of the Anti Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB). The file, according to top police officers, was handed back by Piggott for certain things to be “cleared up.”  However the file could not be traced and senior officers told Sunday Newsday that a decision will be taken soon. It implicates at least three police officers in what appears to be a major cover up of misbehaviour in public office.

According to records from the Licensing Department, a policeman is the last owner of the wrecker which towed away the car. He is alleged to be the main man behind the car-switching racket, police said. The wrecker employee, according to Insp Lewis, seems to have “gone underground” and has not given a statement to the police although he had promised to do so. The Constable at the centre of the investigations has not yet given a statement to Insp Lewis, who wrote a report to a Senior Superintendent in the North Eastern Division.  His letter was dated August 12, 2002. The report concerning the car begins when a vehicle was taken to the Santa Cruz Police Station on September 23, 2000, by Sgt Hazarie after it was found abandoned at Susconosco No 1. Insp Lewis said in his statement to the Snr Supt that in May 2001, he was transferred to the Santa Cruz Police Station from the San Juan Police Station. He stated that on arrival at the Santa Cruz Police station, he observed the black Nissan Sunny, registration number, PAS 2455, among several vehicles which appeared to be in different stages of disrepair. He said he enquired about the black vehicle which was parked on the roadway between the station building and the Second Division Officer’s (SDO’s) Quarters, and was told that the vehicle was one of those recovered vehicles that was brought to the station in the year 2000. He found the inside and the outside of this vehicle in good condition. He said on Saturday August 25, 2001, he visited the Santa Cruz Police Station and when he left, vehicle PAS 2455 was parked as usual. However, he said, when he arrived at the station on August 27, 2001, the vehicle was not there.

Insp Lewis said he observed an entry in the station diary which stated that at 9.45pm on Sunday August 26, 2001, a certain individual (name called) driving a wrecker (number called) left the station with one black Nissan Sunny for the Forensic Science Centre.“I found it strange that a vehicle would be taken to the Forensic Science Centre at 9.45 pm on a Sunday, and no police officer escorted this vehicle (exhibit) to the Forensic Science Centre,” Insp Lewis said. On Monday September 17, 2001, Insp Lewis said, he arrived at the station and on checking the station diary observed entries at paragraphs 35 and 36 of Saturday September 15, 2001, indicating that: A Constable arrived at station in wrecker (number given) driven by a man towing vehicle PAS 2455, which was without battery, stereo, and other minor accessories; and that a Constable left the station in the wrecker after lodging vehicle PAS 2455 at the station. “I again found it unusual that a vehicle (exhibit) was brought in from the Forensic Science Centre on a Saturday,” Insp Lewis said, adding he immediately went out in the station yard to look for this vehicle and observed a black vehicle parked on the far eastern side of the yard.

“This vehicle was placed there recently since based on my observations of the vehicles that were lodged in the yard, that black vehicle was not there the previous Friday,” he said. He added he went to the vehicle which was also a black Sunny motorcar with a number plate PAS 2455 placed on the inside dashboard. This vehicle, Lewis said, looked shiny on the outside as if it was recently painted.  However, he said, the vehicle was in a very dilapidated condition and the bonnet was partially opened and did not look like it could close properly. “All the windows were open and did not appear as if they could wind up.  The inside of this vehicle was in a state of decomposition and looked like it was exposed to the weather for a long time. “The seats were tattered and mouldy, the floor was covered with fungi, the inner portion of the doors (upholstery) appeared to be freshly painted in black and there was black paint on the inside of the vehicle (including the fungus-laden seats and floor,” Insp Lewis said. He said he then formed the opinion that this vehicle was not the one he saw on the compound just three weeks ago. Lewis said he found several inconsistencies with respect to entries made in the respective station diaries, such as there is no mention of a Constable arriving or leaving the Santa Cruz Police Station at 9.32 pm on Saturday August 26, 2001, although there are reports from other officers that the Constable accompanied a man to the station.

Insp Lewis’ statement states further that a report from acting Insp Lennard Gay, head of the Stolen Vehicles Department, indicates that on November 17, 2000, he (Gay) checked a black Sunny motorcar bearing registration number PAS 2455 at the Santa Cruz Police Station and discovered this vehicle’s chassis number to be HB11B37358 and its engine number to be EI1514055 and both were intact. However,  on October 2, 2001, Insp Gay, checked another vehicle (black Sunny) with the number plate PAS 2455 inside the vehicle at the said station.  This vehicle’s chassis number, ac-cording to Gay was HB11B37368 and its engine number was EI390861A. “On completion of the check I compared the numbers of this vehicle with the numbers of the other vehicle which I had previously checked and the numbers were different. I also discovered that the chassis number was tampered with and not intact,” a part of Gay’s statement read. Insp Lewis also said further enquiries revealed that chassis number HB11B373-68 was traced to vehicle registration number PAR 6017, a white Nissan Sunny motorcar; chassis number HB11B37358 was traced to vehicle registration number PAR 4388, a white Nissan Sunny motorcar, and registration number PAS 2455 was checked and was not found. However, in-vestigations found a vehicle, HAS 2455 was registered as a Toyota Coaster 21-seater bus. Insp Lewis said efforts to communicate with the registered owners of vehicles PAR 6017, PAR 4388 and HAS 2455 have been unsuccessful.

Apart from categorically denying that he had ever given permission to anyone to remove the black Nissan Sunny, Sgt Hazarie’s letter dated August 27, 2001, and addressed to Insp Lewis, said after Insp Gay carried out the two separate tests, he was convinced there had been a switch. “This cemented my position that a Constable had switch-ed this vehicle for the vehicle that I had brought to the Santa Cruz Police Station in good working condition. “Many other officers who have information of this nature are either too scared to speak out or just feel it is not their business, some simply don’t care what happens to our police service. I feel obligated to do my part in ridding the service of delinquent persons, hence the reason for my actions in this matter,” Sgt Hazarie said. In other statements, a constable indicated that another Consta-ble took off the licence plates of PAS 2455, while a third constable said a fourth constable in-structed him to write false information on September 15, 2001. Senior officers are anxious to locate the file so that this matter can be concluded, since they are convinced that a police Constable switched cars removing one in good condition and replacing it with an old and battered car.