Oropouche men fined for torching rental car in 2005

TWO south Oropouche men were fined on Friday and ordered to pay compensation for setting a rental car on fire some 15 years ago.

Amrish Balkaran and Dharmendra Sookram both appeared virtually before Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, who ordered both to pay a $2,000 fine or serve three months’ hard labour in default.

Balkaran was ordered to pay $5,000 in compensation to the owner of the car and Sookram was ordered to pay $10,000.

They have until April 1, 2021, to pay their fines and the compensation.

Both men had requested a maximum-sentence indication from the judge before they pleaded guilty. She recommended non-custodial sentences and compensation.

The judge was highly critical of the prosecution’s handling of the case.

The men were initially on a two-count incitement for larceny of a motor vehicle and malicious damage. At a previous hearing, the judge expressed concern over the “clear excesses” in the summary of evidence, saying it contained “grossly irrelevant” information that had no bearing on the indictment for larceny.

This led to the case being halted, ,and at Friday’s sentencing hearing, Ramsumair-Hinds said she shuddered to think of the impact of the public’s confidence in the system if the matter had proceeded with the ill-drafted summary of evidence.

Eventually, the prosecution offered no evidence on the count of larceny and the men were re-arraigned on the malicious-damage count, to which they both pleaded guilty.

Ramsumair-Hinds reminded that prosecutors occupy a “powerful and privileged” position and recommended to the DPP “some retraining and certainly greater supervision and scrutiny” of his charges.

In sentencing the men, she said any sentence from the court must be commensurate with the offence, while serving as a deterrent to the offender and potential offenders.

“The offender must understand and appreciate the reason behind the punishment inflicted,” she said.

Balkaran, who was 20 at the time of the incident on March 3, 2005, was credited for turning himself in to the police after the incident and leading them to the burnt-out shell of the car.

His two teenage sons sent handwritten testimonials on his behalf, asking the judge not to jeopardise their father’s future for his mistake.

“How do you measure the man who did the wrong? How do you punish him 15 years later?” the judge asked, as she read from the teenagers’ petition. Both boys said the family depended on him, and the younger boy said while his father tended to make mistakes, he needed his support to keep him on the “correct path in life.”

“Your place in society is grounded in the living, breathing existence of two young men,” Ramsumair-Hinds told Balkaran, who had no previous or subsequent convictions. “You self-adjusted, self-corrected yourself to the extent that these two men have said, ‘My dad isn’t perfect, but he is doing a good job, so far, by our estimation.'”

Sookram had previous convictions in 1996, 1997 and 2003, for which he paid fines, and one for obscene language and resisting arrest, six years ago.

The judge also expressed some concern that the car – a Nissan B12 Sentra, bearing the registration PAY 7975, which was valued at $22,000 – was not registered for the purpose it was used.

She made it clear the court did not punish victims, and she was not doing so in this case, but said it would be remiss of her to “pretend there is not something glaring here.

“We are required to punish for corruption in public office and, even when it takes place, any attempt to do something that might be improper. Society ought to frown upon not just the attempt to benefit from something unlawfully, but the person who tries to bypass the system,” she said.

She also said proper registration of vehicles would be covered by the proper insurance coverage.

“There is a reason for things to be in place,” she said as she sounded a general warning to the public. “All of us in society, our behaviours, are governed by law.”

She recognised the owner of the car did suffer “a terrible loss” as she ordered the men to compensate him.

“I hope they’ve learnt something, their families and society at large,” she said at the end of the sentencing.