A State prosecutor has stated that Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls did not have a valid certificate of insurance when his vehicle was involved in an accident on the Lady Young Road, Belmont, earlier this year.
Renuka Rambhajan was responding to a no-case submission by Mc Nicoll's attorney Isarel Khan, SC, when the matter came up for hearing in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates' Court yesterday.
The matter is being heard before Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Court.
Mc Nicolls is charged with permitting his bodyguard PC Sean Simon to drive his (Mc Nicolls') vehicle without a valid certificate of insurance.
Simon was also charged with driving the vehicle without valid insurance.
Rambhajan said at the time of the accident the Mc Nicolls' driver did not possess a certificate of insurance.
She said even though Capital Insurance issued a letter stating the vehicle was covered at the time since there was an automatic renewal, the automatic renewal never existed.
"It was not effectively done, because the hour of the issue was 2.25 pm, and at 11.25 am, he (Mc Nicolls) was asked to produce a certificate of insurance (after the accident) and he could not do so," Rambhajan said.
The State prosecutor said, "If the 'automatic' renewal existed, a certificate would have been dated on December 21, 2008, (when the insurance expired) and not on February, 20, 2009, hours after the accident took place."
She said there was no indication of the automatic renewal on the certificate and any special circumstances must be clearly stated.
Rambhajan said even though there might have been an (automatic renewal) agreement between Mc Nicolls and Capital Insurance, Mc Nicolls did not go to the company and "firm up" the arrangements which would have effected the insurance.
She argued, "We are hearing for the first time that he was out of the country at the time (the insurance expired). There must be a valid offer and acceptance, and silence is not an indication of accepting.
"There was a condition to be met, which Mc Nicolls did not meet. No positive act was put forward on the part of the defendant, even up to this stage to state the automatic renewal took place."
Rambhajan said a contract of insurance which may exist, although the state believed it did not, does not equate to a policy.
She concluded that a prima facie case had been made out against the defendant and the onus was on him to show that he had a valid certificate of insurance.
Cardenas-Ragoonanan would rule on the submissions next Tuesday. Cpl Rakesh Ramsook, the officer who charged Mc Nicolls and Simon and PC Ian Ramroop have already given evidence in the matter.
Flashback
The charges against them stemmed from an alleged accident that occurred on the Lady Young Road, Belmont, on February 20, in which a vehicle driven by a Mt Hope woman collided with Mc Nicolls' Toyota Hilux.
The woman reported the accident to the Belmont Police Station while Simon made a report to the Princes Town Police Station later that night.
