Casan­dra Thomp­son-Forbes

Thir­ty-one peo­ple ap­peared be­fore a vir­tu­al Mag­is­trates’ Court on Tues­day, charged with gath­er­ing in a group of more than five, in con­tra­ven­tion of the COVID-19 Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions.

They were all ar­rest­ed over the week­end.

In the first in­ci­dent, 16 adults and four chil­dren, were ar­rest­ed af­ter they were caught cook­ing, bathing and lim­ing at No Man’s Land, To­ba­go.

Apart from this be­ing against the reg­u­la­tions, the area was al­so de­clared off-lim­its by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA).

The court heard, that of­fi­cers re­ceived in­for­ma­tion of a gath­er­ing at No Man’s Land near the Bon Ac­cord La­goon. They then pro­ceed­ed to No Man’s Land and found the group bathing, grilling fish, and cook­ing oth­er meats.

Po­lice said, there was al­so a cool­er filled with drinks, and the 20 peo­ple, which in­clud­ed four chil­dren be­tween the ages of 14 to 16 years old, were not ad­her­ing to so­cial dis­tanc­ing pro­to­cols.

Twelve peo­ple were placed on a $6,000 bond and or­dered to keep the peace for two years, while eight of them were rep­ri­mand­ed and dis­charged.

Ag Cpl Thomas of the Crown Point Po­lice Sta­tion laid the charges.

In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, 11 peo­ple were ar­rest­ed at Spring Road, Dar­rell Spring on Sun­day for gath­er­ing in con­tra­ven­tion of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance.

Of­fi­cers told the court, they were on pa­trol in the area, when they ob­served a group of per­sons gath­er­ing in droves. Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that they were gy­rat­ing to loud mu­sic and was in the process of record­ing them­selves. When they ap­peared be­fore a mag­is­trate via an on­line con­nec­tion on Tues­day, they were rep­ri­mand­ed and dis­charged.

SRP Bap­tiste laid the charge.

Mem­bers of the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion of the TTPS con­tin­ue to re­mind mem­bers of the pub­lic that un­der the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance Sec­tion 3 (b) (i) “No per­son is to be found in any pub­lic place where the num­ber of per­sons gath­ered ex­ceeds five.”