PHONE HUNT

A MAJOR police operation involving elite units within the Police Service was underway yesterday all geared towards recovering a cellular phone stolen from the son of Finance Minister Colm Imbert during a hold-up on Friday.

Police sources would only tell Newsday that agents from at least two elite units, dealing with the gathering of data for National Security purposes, are involved in the investigations surrounding the hold-up of Adrian Colm Imbert, the 25-year-old son of Imbert who is MP for Diego Martin North/East.

Police sources said that intelligence gathering resources and state of the art technology are being employed to find the $5,000 cellphone belonging to Imbert which was stolen last Friday.

Officers made some progress on the whereabouts of the phone on the weekend and yesterday investigators searched some parts of Beetham and Laventille.

Imbert of Hillsborough in Maraval was traumatised following the incident. Sources revealed that Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon has been liaising with senior police officers on the matter.

Efforts to reach Minister Imbert on his cellphone yesterday proved futile as all calls went unanswered.

However, sources close to Imbert, who last week acted as prime minister in the absence of Dr Keith Rowley who was attending a Caricom meeting in Jamaica, said that he and his wife Susanne Williams-Imbert were both traumatised on learning of their son’s face to face encounter with bandits.

According to reports, at about 2.30 pm, Imbert was driving a white pick-up van along the Eastern Main Road in Laventille when nearing the Fernandez compound, the pick-up stalled.

Imbert alerted a mechanic and was advised to allow the engine to cool down before restarting. He was also told to stay put and await the arrival of assistance.

However, a few minutes later, Imbert was approached by two men who first offered to assist and then announced a hold-up. They then robbed Imbert of his phone and wallet which contained an undisclosed amount of cash.

Following the robbery, a dazed Imbert went to the Besson Street Police Station in East Port of Spain where he made a report and then contacted his parents. Senior police officers alerted detectives from police Cyber Crime Unit to begin efforts to track the stolen cell phone which up to yesterday, had not been recovered.

Sources said Imbert was extremely relieved that his son was not harmed during the robbery and has been liaising with investigators on the matter. Imbert’s pick-up was later towed for repairs.