New trial for car dealer, customs clerk

A used car dealer and a customs clerk will face a fresh trial for fraudulent evasion of import duties.

The new trial for Navindra Deonarine, owner of a used car dealership in Dow Village, Couva, and Winston Roger Bedassie, a customs clerk with his own brokerage company, was ordered by Justices of Appeal Rajendra Narine and Mark Mohammed yesterday.

The two were the respondents in an appeal filed by customs officer Bernard Samad who charged the two in July 2007.

They were also charged with removing a used Toyota Prado and a used Subaru Impreza.

Samad also charged a customs officer, Lennox Balkaran, but the judges did not overturn the magistrate’s decision to dismiss the charge against him.

In delivering their decision to order a retrial of the two, Mohammed said although some 11 years had passed, there was the inherent seriousness of the offence and the fact that it affected the collection of revenue for the State.

He said these factors generated a strong public interest in having the two retried.

Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson represented the State at the appeal while attorney Jagdeo Singh represented Deonarine and Balkaran, and Kelvin Ramkissoon represented Bedassie.