CAR SWITCH FILE GOES TO DPP

THE BULKY file in which at least three police officers and a car wrecking employee were implicated in a car switching scam is now with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson.

Acting Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul confirmed this yesterday, but did not want to say when the file reached the DPP’s office. The file reportedly could not be traced after Sr Supt Maurice Piggott, head of the Anti- Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) returned it for certain things to be “cleared up.” Newsday on Sunday carried a special report on the incident which occurred in August 2001. The incident involves the switching of a black Nissan Sunny, registration number, PAS 2455, which was reportedly stolen from the Santa Cruz Police Station on a Sunday night on the pretext that it was going to the Forensic Science Centre for testing. This has proven to be an untruth, since Yolanda Thompson, Director of the Forensic Science Centre, said the car in question never came to the station in the year 2001. The vehicle was in a very good condition when it was taken from the Santa Cruz station, lead investigator Insp Christopher Lewis said in his report, which was addressed to a Sr Supt in the North Eastern Division. 

The vehicle was also an exhibit.  It was found abandoned in Susconosco #1 by Sgt Mongal Hazarie, another officer who investigated the disappearence of the car. Three weeks after the black Nissan Sunny vehicle disappeared from the Santa Cruz Station, another vehicle purporting to be the same black Nissan Sunny was brought back to the Santa Cruz Station in a dilapidated condition. The number plate (PAS2455) of that vehicle was inside the vehicle, and it is also understood that illegal activities were carried out with the initial Nissan Sunny vehicle which was stolen from the Santa Cruz Police Station. Insp Lewis and Sgt Hazarie carried out independent investigations during which time several statements were recorded. Statements from junior officers state that they were instructed to write false information in station diaries relating to the vehicle’s movements.