Four peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and sev­er­al mar­ket items seized by of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain City Po­lice dur­ing an ex­er­cise to stop il­le­gal street vend­ing on Sat­ur­day.

The ex­er­cise re­sult­ed in the ar­rest of a 36-year-old woman Barataria; a 42-year-old woman of Va­len­cia; a 34-year-old man of Port-of-Spain; and a 46-year-old man of Port-of-Spain.

The four were charged with of­fer­ing for sale mar­ketable com­modi­ties, wil­ful ob­struc­tion and un­law­ful pitch of a stall, of­fences which are con­trary to the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act.

The make-shift stalls con­tain­ing the as­sort­ed mar­ketable com­modi­ties were seized, doc­u­ment­ed and ex­am­ined by of­fi­cers of the pub­lic health de­part­ment.

The in­di­vid­u­als are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trate this week.

The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed on Char­lotte, Hen­ry, Fred­er­ick and Queen Janelle Com­mis­siong streets, Broad­way and the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, In­de­pen­dence Square.

Chap­ter 25: 04, Sec­tion 199 of the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act states:

1. No per­son may sell or of­fer for sale any fresh or frozen meat or fish with­in a City or Bor­ough ex­cept in a pub­lic mar­ket or in a shop, store or ware­house li­censed for such sale by the Coun­cil of the Cor­po­ra­tion ob­tained a li­cense for the pur­pose from the Coun­cil. Every per­son who con­tra­venes this sec­tion is li­able to a fine of two hun­dred dol­lars for each day on which he so con­tra­venes.

2. With­in any City or Bor­ough, no per­son may sell or of­fer for sale any mar­ketable com­mod­i­ty not be­ing fresh or frozen meat or fish ex­cept in a pub­lic mar­ket or un­der and in ac­cor­dance with the terms of a li­cence in that be­half grant­ed by the Coun­cil.

3. Any per­son who con­tra­venes sub­sec­tion (1) is li­able to a fine of two thou­sand dol­lars.

4. Any per­son who con­tra­venes sub­sec­tion (2) is li­able to a fine of one thou­sand dol­lars.

The Port-of-Spain City Po­lice has re­mind­ed burgess­es of the law gov­ern­ing vend­ing and strong­ly en­cour­ages those in­ter­est­ed in the trade to do so law­ful­ly as Po­lice Of­fi­cers will en­force the law to en­sure pub­lic health safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty.