Scrap Iron Dealers’ Association (TTSIDA) president Allan Ferguson is denying allegations that he has been purchasing stolen TSTT copper lines.
An anonymous source sent Guardian Media several photographs of piles of what appeared to be copper lines at Ferguson’s compound, West Indian Salvage and Recycling Co Ltd, in Kelly Village, Caroni.
The photos were taken in mid-June and when a GML news team visited Ferguson yesterday and showed him the photos, he did not deny they were on his property. After looking at the photo, Ferguson said he was certain the lines were copper.
“100 per cent sure,” he said.
However, he had an explanation.
“Let me explain something to you, I had won the bid of TSTT, TSTT had a whole set of copper and I had win the bid, so if you see any TSTT copper in this yard, is where I would have win the bid,” he said.
The winning bid was valued at $300,000, he said.
He produced five “gate passes” each dated in November 2021, showing that loads of copper wire were removed from TSTT’s compounds.
He said he had more gate passes because his company had removed a significant amount of copper wires but he could not find them at the time of the interview.
Ferguson said he left the wires outside, where the public could see, because he had nothing to hide.
Asked about statements made in press conferences over the past six months about not being involved in the export of copper, Ferguson said he sells the pricey wire to an exporter.
“I sell it to a local man who exports…A lot of wire sell already, it’s more than three months now. I won it last year, but we only started to move it this year,” he said.
Asked why he publicly lambasted TSTT for months for not partnering with the TTSIDA to remove the cables, Ferguson said it was not the same thing.
He said to remove those lines, his workers had to go through a process with TSTT.
“They will have a routine with workers to go through, then you take it from their property and bring it to your yard, we did not put it in no warehouse because we did not want to seem like we were hiding anything, so we put it outside.”
He claimed those who were making allegations that he was buying stolen cables had an agenda.
“If a mango tree don’t have no mangoes in it, it won’t have no mango to pelt down. The people who want to do that are the people who don’t want the organisation to go forward and better, you will always find them coming at me,” Ferguson said.
He claimed the people who made the allegation did not like his efforts to regularise the scrap iron industry in the face of threats from the Government to shut it down.
He said during his “inspections” of scrap iron yards over the past several days, there were several dealers who refused to allow him and his team access to their properties.
“There will always be the few who don’t agree and don’t want to do what is best for the industry,” Ferguson said.
GML contacted TSTT for confirmation of Ferguson’s statements.
The company issued a brief release stating that Ferguson’s company had won a bid to dispose of copper cables from its Tobago, Farm Road and Macoya locations.
“Displaced copper cable refers to items that are either aged, unusable or damaged,” TSTT said.