Ak­ile Si­mon

Chief Mag­is­trate Sher­man Mc­Ni­colls is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trate to­day to an­swer a charge of al­leged­ly per­mit­ting a po­lice con­sta­ble to dri­ve his ve­hi­cle with­out a valid cer­tifi­cate of in­sur­ance. Mc Nicolls' body­guard, PC Sean Si­mon is al­so ex­pect­ed to make an ap­pear­ance be­fore Sixth Court Mag­is­trate Deb­bie Ann-Bas­saw. Si­mon, an of­fi­cer as­signed to Spe­cial Branch, was al­so charged with dri­ving a ve­hi­cle with­out a valid cer­tifi­cate of in­sur­ance. Both were charged via sum­mons­es un­der the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle and In­sur­ance Act, Chap­ter 48:51 Sec­tion 3:1 on Au­gust 20.

If found guilty, the two face a max­i­mum fine of $5,000 and could be sent to jail for two years. On Au­gust 19, the charges against the two were laid at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court af­ter se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers in­struct­ed that Mc Nicolls and Si­mon be charged with the al­leged of­fence, two days be­fore the statu­to­ry time frame for lay­ing the charges was to ex­pired. Sum­mons­es were ob­tained and served on Mc Nicolls and Si­mon at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court the fol­low­ing day. Mc Nicolls is not the first pre­sid­ing mag­is­trate to be charged with a traf­fic of­fence.

Last No­vem­ber, Se­nior Mag­is­trate Jo-Anne Con­nor was be­fore Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court on three traf­fic charges. Con­nor was lat­er ac­quit­ted, af­ter Mc Nicolls ruled that the Trans­port of­fi­cer, who laid the charges, had no au­thor­i­ty un­der the law to do so. The pros­e­cu­tion is claim­ing that on Feb­ru­ary 20, 2009, Mc Nicolls per­mit­ted Si­mon to dri­ve his Hi-Lux van along the La­dy Young Road, Bel­mont. The charges, po­lice said, stemmed from an ac­ci­dent in which a ve­hi­cle, dri­ven by a woman of Mt Hope, col­lid­ed with the ve­hi­cle dri­ven by Si­mon. The woman lat­er made a re­port at Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion, while Si­mon re­port­ed the ac­ci­dent lat­er that night at Princes Town Po­lice Sta­tion. Cpl Rakesh Ram­sook, of the Bel­mont Po­lice, in­ves­ti­gat­ed the mat­ter and laid the charges.