‘Massive’ counts additional $$

CHUTNEY singer Nermal “Massive” Gosein will be counting an additional $.2 million he is to receive from the State for its failure to comply with a 2014 court order to return his driver’s permit to him. The Rowlee Mudda Count singer was awarded $192,273.74 by High Court Master Patricia Sobion-Awai last week.

This is the second award of damages for Gosein, who in 2006 was wrongfully arrested and charged with having a forged driver’s permit. The case was dismissed on October 21, 2008, after the policeman who charged him repeatedly failed to show up in court. In 2014, Justice Joan Charles ordered judgement for Gosine in his malicious prosecution claim and held that his permit (which carried the number 739085F) was valid and lawfully registered, but was erroneously registered (as 769925F).

The judge ordered compensation, interest and costs totalling $765,000 and ordered the Commissioner of Transport and the Licensing Authority to return a corrected version of Gosein’s driver’s permit to him, within a week of the order, at no cost to him. Gosein’s new claim arose from the State’s failure to reissue a corrected permit.

Gosein, through his attorney Abdel Mohammed, filed a second lawsuit against the State for failing to abide by the judge’s order to issue him a new, valid permit and take the inaccurate duplicate off the register. He was again awarded damages, to be assessed by the court, for the failure of the Licensing Division to issue him a valid driver’s permit and declassify a duplicate permit it issued which carried the wrong number and which led to his arrest.

His driver’s permit was eventually returned to him on September 19, 2016. He said he had been forced to hire a driver, and Master Sobion-Awai accepted that he suffered distress at not being able to drive himself, as well as the numerous attempts he made to get the Commissioner of Transport to comply with the court order.