Port of Spain scrap dealer: Police took my copper

VEJAI RAMLAKHAN, the owner of a meat shop and illegal scrapyard on George Street, Port of Spain, is claiming police seized over 3,000 lbs of copper left to him by his late father.

Ramlakhan was charged on Saturday, after police with a search warrant entered and scrutinised the scrapyard, which was suspected of housing arms and ammunition.

None were discovered, but police found and seized five drain covers which are believed to be the city's property, as well as an undisclosed quantity of copper and various other scrap materials.

Ramlakhan was charged with unlawful possession and buying stolen items. He was granted and paid $50,000 for station bail before appearing in court virtually on Monday.

Copper wire belonging to the state-owned TSTT has long been a target of thieves.

But Ramlakhan said the "quantity of copper" as described by the police was his property, and amounted to amounted to some 3,000 lbs.

"What is 'a quantity of copper'? I know what I had there. My father leave that in the room when he died, and I leave it there because copper price was low.

"They take up two piece of black cable and (another cable) and say, 'Somebody missing copper,' or something, and they take that.

"On the van, you seeing the cable and the pieces of steel that they talking about, but I not seeing the copper. And they never say how much copper they take.

"I'm not estimating, sir. My father leave that in a room."

With respect to the drain covers, he explained, "When we as dealers are buying something, we don't buy something like an aluminium table, we don't look at it as a table. They does say, 'We buying aluminium.'

"If a man bring a gate or something, we buy steel, we don't buy gate.

"So we buying metal. If these things happen to reach my compound, we will see it as a piece of steel. If all come at one time, we go know that it's a set from somewhere and we go say, 'Nah, something wrong here.' But if it comes one at a time, you wouldn't notice it.

"I didn't even see what (else) on the truck. because they turn me one side and put me to face the wall."

Ramlakhan also claimed he was not given a chance to read the search warrant.

"They come and dig up and ransack my whole house, right. They didn't come with no dogs. (They would have) if they came for arms and ammunition."

"They block everybody off. They put them in one corner and they put the police to guard them. No phones (to record), so nobody ent see what happening.

But he said the matter is too trivial to potentially damage his reputation.

"I can't be in town 30 years, in the same spot, doing business and then just get defamed like that, you know. For a piece of steel. Police should have arrested people if they pick it up, because the city have police.

"The police want people to work with them but they don't work with the people. Why the police didn't come and inform us they were looking for these things? And they could come."

On Monday, while he appeared before a magistrate, his meat shop next door was visited by a number of public health inspectors assigned to the Port of Spain City Corporation, together with police.

They scrutinised the premises, deemed them unsanitary, and seized well over 1,000 lbs of both frozen and unfrozen meat described as "unfit for human consumption."

Ramlakhan will reappear in court on July 12.

He said he is doing repairs and upgrades to the meat shop as recommended and looks forward to reopening.