Unexplained wealth orders go to Privy Council

THE reinstatement by the Court of Appeal of preliminary unexplained wealth orders, which allowed the police to seize the assets of two families allegedly linked to drug trafficking, will be challenged at the Privy Council.

On Wednesday, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mira Dean-Armorer and Vasheist Kokaram approved leave for attorneys for the two families to challenge the Appeal Court’s decision of January 31.

In that ruling, the court allowed the appeal of the police and remitted the orders to the High Court for further hearing.

The judges – Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Mark Mohammed and Maria Wilson –were asked by the police to overturn the orders of Justice Carla Brown-Antoine who reversed her decisions to grant preliminary unexplained wealth orders against the families on the basis that the police did not provide sufficient evidence to sustain the orders.

The orders were initially granted by Brown-Antoine in 2019 on an application by acting Supt Wendell Lucas and acting ASP Richard Taylor against the members of two families.

At Wednesday’s hearing, attorney for the officers Ravi Rajcoomar said there were no objections to the application to appeal to the Privy Council.

Soo Hon said since it was a matter of public importance, the court was giving its permission.

In 2020, attorneys for the families asked the court to set aside the preliminary unexplained-wealth orders and Brown-Antoine did so, revoking her earlier orders.

In both cases, the police argued they had reasonable cause to suspect the wealth of the five members of the two families was unlawfully obtained as a result of drug-trafficking and money-laundering.

Some of the five have been charged with varying offences, which are pending.

In their ruling in January, the judges said the police did not need direct evidence as the law provided for officers to have “reasonable suspicion” of ill-gotten wealth.

In analysing the two sets of applications, the Appeal Court held there was ample evidence for the police to have reasonable suspicion that the assets of the group were linked to drug trafficking and money laundering.

The families were represented by Jagdeo Singh, Karina Singh and Navindra Ramnanan.