Appeal Court dismisses conviction for Blackberry stolen in 2011

A man who was convicted, sentenced to three years for receiving a stolen Blackberry Curve cell phone in 2011, has had his conviction and sentence quashed on appeal.

Soochan Persad was charged with receiving stolen property on July 28, 2011 and was eventually convicted and sentenced by a magistrate.

At an appeal hearing earlier today, Justices Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Mark Mohammed quashed Persad conviction and sentence as they ruled against ordering a retrial.

While admitting that even after seven years and eight months, the lapse of time was not a bar to ordering a new trial, they said they had difficulty in doing so because of the strength of the prosecution’s case which concerned them.

According to the judges it was clear the prosecution could not prove the essential element of ownership of the cellphone, although the owner had identified it by his wife’s photos on it at the police station.

Yorke-Soo Hon said with the prosecution not in a position to prove ownership of the cellphone, the offence for which Persad was charged remained unproved and it would be unfair, and a miscarriage of justice, to give the prosecution a second chance to go make good its case and plug any gaps if a new trial was ordered.

Persad was represented by attorney Russell Warner.