De­bra Thomas-Fe­lix

The words of a may­or are not law and have no le­gal force with­out leg­is­la­tion. This was the view of for­mer In­dus­tri­al Court judge and deputy chief mag­is­trate De­bra Thomas-Fe­lix as she ques­tioned the ac­tions of Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing in tow­ing ve­hi­cles and charg­ing a $1,300 im­pound­ing fee. Last month, the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion be­gan an ag­gres­sive pro­gramme of tow­ing and im­pound­ing cars parked on pave­ments and in front of dri­ve­ways, con­cen­trat­ing main­ly in St James and Wood­brook.

The pro­gramme has sparked crit­i­cism from Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma, who, in an in­ter­view in a dai­ly news­pa­per, ob­ject­ed to the ac­tions of Lee Sing and the cor­po­ra­tion, say­ing it was "out­side the law." In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Thomas-Fe­lix, now in pri­vate prac­tice, said: "Where does the city cor­po­ra­tion get the pow­er to tow ve­hi­cles and then charge an ar­bi­trary fee for im­pound­ing costs?

"Un­der the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle and Road Traf­fic Act it is on­ly the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice that has the pow­ers to tow ve­hi­cles that are in­fringe­ment of road traf­fic laws. "I am not aware that the city cor­po­ra­tion owns a wreck­ing ser­vice and has the statu­to­ry pow­er to tow ve­hi­cles." She said any at­tempt by the cor­po­ra­tion to col­lect funds from cit­i­zens for breach­ing traf­fic laws was go­ing against the leg­is­la­tion.

Un­der sec­tion 109 of the amend­ed Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle and Road Traf­fic Act the fines for the re­moval of a ve­hi­cle and for cus­tody of a ve­hi­cle are $300 and $200, re­spec­tive­ly. The act states the mon­ey is payable to the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and not to the cor­po­ra­tion. Thomas-Fe­lix said she had been con­tact­ed by some­one whose ve­hi­cle was wrecked last week. She said: "The ve­hi­cle was im­pound­ed in Long Cir­cu­lar for four days and the own­er paid a por­tion of the fine and was giv­en three months to pay the re­main­der.

"Those af­fect­ed by this tow­ing that caus­es dam­age to their ve­hi­cles may be en­ti­tled to dam­ages from the court if they file a civ­il suit against the cor­po­ra­tion. "But the cost of hir­ing an at­tor­ney, go­ing through the court sys­tem is daunt­ing and most end up pay­ing the $1,300 fine," she added. Re­spond­ing yes­ter­day, Lee Sing said he had a dif­fer­ent view of the mat­ter.

He added: "It is the du­ty of the cor­po­ra­tion and the may­or to re­move nui­sances with­in the city and pro­tect its as­sets which in­clude pave­ments. Ve­hi­cles that are parked on pave­ments dam­age them and have to be re­moved. "The $1,300 fee ac­count­ed for the ad­min­is­tra­tive costs for the im­pound­ing of ve­hi­cles."

He al­so said the cor­po­ra­tion's po­lice force was in­volved in the wreck­ing pro­ce­dure. When asked about Shar­ma's com­ments, Lee Sing said: "Mr Shar­ma has a grouse be­cause the may­or of Port-of-Spain op­er­ates in­de­pen­dent­ly."