The Court of Appeal has quashed a 43-year-old delivery driver's conviction for stealing $7,500 from his employer.During a hearing of the appeal last Thursday, appellate judges Paula Mae Weekes and Alice Yorke Soo-Hon decided to quash the conviction and sentence of Andrew Seesahai after his attorneys and state prosecutors agreed the case against him was a weak one.
Seesahai's attorney Daniel Khan advanced four grounds in his appeal. Khan argued that the magistrate who convicted Seesahai did not consider his good character, considered illegal hearsay evidence and applied a wrong test when she was admitting Seesahai's witness statement and also that there was material non-disclosure in the case.Seesahai, of Wall Street, Madras Road, Cunupia, was convicted before Magistrate Marcia Murray in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court on March 21 last year.
He was sentenced to nine months in prison with hard labour.In his trial, the State led evidence that on July 18, 2007, Seesahai delivered cases of soft drink to a business and was given the money as payment, but did not hand over the money to his employer, RJR Distributors Ltd, of Violet Drive, Freeport.In his defence, Seesahai admitted he received the money but said he was robbed while returning to his employer's offices.
