State to compensate hunter for keeping shotgun

A hunter whose shotgun and gun licence were kept by the police for two years will receive $.25 million from the State.

On Tuesday, Master Sherlanne Pierre ordered compensation for Donald Mohammed of $256,048, plus interest and costs.

Mohammed was represented by attorneys Anand Ramlogan SC, Alvin Pariagsingh and Robert Abdool-Mitchell. The State was represented by attorneys Stefan Jaikaran and Savitri Maharaj at the assessment trial after judgment had been granted in the hunter’s favour.

Mohammed’s claim said he is the lawful owner of a shotgun he bought in 2005.

He was arrested in January 2012, eight months after he was accused of shooting a man with a handgun.

When he was detained in 2011, police released him after he gave them his shotgun and licence. He said that was the only firearm he owned and his employers, the owners of a scrap-iron yard in Carlsen Field, provided a solid alibi for him.

Eight months later, he was arrested at his vegetable stall and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, ammunition, unlawfully carrying away a person and wounding the person.

The shotgun and licence were taken and, although the charges were dismissed in 2015, they were not returned.

He said in the absence of the items, he could not renew the licence and the police repeatedly asked him to produce the gun for inspection, although they had it.

“My firearm was not only a source of recreation but I mainly used it to supplement my income by hunting and selling wild meat each year during the hunting season,” he said.

Mohammed claimed his average wild-meat sales amounted to $73,600 annually and he was unable to earn any income for three hunting seasons, because he didn’t have his shotgun or licence.

He said in 2018, after he received judgment in default, he was told the office of the deputy police commissioner had agreed to return the firearm and licence, but when he went to the police administration building in Port of Spain, they said they could not find the latter.

The gun was rusty and he told the officers he would not take it because it was not in a usable state. Mohammed was told if he wanted a new shotgun, he would have to apply for a variation to his gun permit. He did so and was able to buy a new single-barrel 12-gauge shotgun, costing $9,995, for which he has received a new firearm user’s licence.

In her assessment, Pierre ordered the payment of the cost of the new gun, loss of use for October 2015-November 2018, and the cost of the hunting licence Mohammed received although he could not use it.