Charged after selling VSEP land...twice

AN ex-Caroni 1975 Ltd worker charged with selling a parcel of land given to him as part of his VSEP package, to two different buyers, was placed on $75,000 bail with a surety when he appeared in court yesterday. As a further condition of the bail he will have to report every Sunday to the Princes Town Police Station.

Stephen Roopnarine, 66, of Buen Intento in Princes Town was initially denied bail when he appeared before magistrate Natalie Diop in the San Fernando Magistrates Court on Monday.

According to evidence presented in court, after the closure of Caroni (1975) Ltd, Roopnarine was given a two-acre parcel of land near the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.

The court heard that in 2012, he sold the land to a contracting firm for $.25m while not being authorised to do so, as approval for such transactions was only given by the State in in 2014. In December 2012, according to the charges read out in court, the same land was sold to a businessman in Rio Claro for $.25m, with a down payment of $120,000. The businessman later learnt the land was previously sold to someone else and made a report to the Fraud Squad. On Friday last, the pensioner was arrested at a house in Couva and charged with obtaining cash by false pretences. Roopnarine was ordered to return to court on July 30.

Investigations were led and supervised by Fraud Squad head Snr Supt Totaram Dookhie and included ASP Ghisyawan, Insp Mathura, Sgt Badree and complainant Cpl Lewis.