Princes Town security guard, 27, gets second driving ban

A Princes Town man has been banned from driving for 30 months after he pleaded guilty to three offences on Thursday.

Rial Phagoo, 27, a security guard from Buen Intento Road, was also fined a total of $8,000 by a Princes Town magistrate.

In November, another magistrate had banned him from driving for a year.

PC Ramsingh, of the Princes Town municipal police station, charged Phagoo with driving without a valid certificate of insurance, fraudulently imitating the holder of a valid driver’s permit by presenting the permit to a police officer in uniform, and driving after previously been disqualified from holding a driver’s permit.

At around 10.50 am on Wednesday, Ramsingh and other colleagues got a tip-off and intercepted a white Mitsubishi Lancer driven by Phagoo.

A police release said the officer asked Phagoo for his driving documents, and he handed over a driver’s permit.

The release said the permit’s picture did not match Phagoo’s physical description.

Police asked for another form of identification, and Phagoo handed over a national ID card, which matched his physical description.

However, the name on the card was different from the name on the driver’s permit.

Police arrested and charged him. He confessed to borrowing his friend’s permit.

Investigations revealed that in November 2020 a San Fernando magistrate disqualified him from holding a driver’s permit holder for a year.

On Thursday, the Princes Town magistrate further disqualified Phagoo from having a permit for 30 months.

For driving without a valid certificate, the court fined him $5,000. to be paid within four months, or he faces 12 months’ simple imprisonment.

For fraudulently imitating the holder of a valid driver’s permit, the court fined him $2,000. The court granted Phagoo three months to pay or he faces four months’ imprisonment with hard labour.

He was also fined $1,000 for driving a car, having been previously disqualified from doing so. He has a month to pay, or he faces six months’ imprisonment with hard labour.