Sascha Wil­son

A San Fer­nan­do mag­is­trate yes­ter­day im­posed $12,800 in fines on two men charged with 64 of­fences un­der the Con­ser­va­tion of Wild Life Act, since the breach­es do not car­ry a cus­to­di­al sen­tence.

Car­pen­ters Mitchell Ma­haraj, 57, and Chris Sa­hadeo, 31, both of Wood­land, ap­peared be­fore Sec­ond Court Mag­is­trate Siu­mon­gal Ram­saran, each charged with two counts of hav­ing pro­tect­ed ca­puchin mon­keys and 30 counts of hav­ing pi­coplat birds in un­der­sized cages. They both plead­ed guilty.

The 30 birds and the two ba­by mon­keys were brought to court by game war­den Steve Seep­er­sad and oth­er of­fi­cials of the Forestry Di­vi­sion. Pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Dwight Halls said around 1.30 am on Tues­day, the ac­cused were in a car along Pluck Road, Wood­land, which was stopped by po­lice from the South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force.

Po­lice searched the car and found the mon­keys in a rat­tan bas­ket and the birds in a small wood and wire cage. Seep­er­sad charged them un­der Chap­ter 67:01 of the act. Not­ing the court's con­cern about the preva­lence of such of­fences, Ram­saran said the max­i­mum penal­ty, a $200 fine, was too low and the pow­ers that be didn't seem con­cerned about in­creas­ing the penal­ty.

Say­ing health is­sues al­so arose, Ram­saran asked de­fence at­tor­ney Shas­tri VC Parsad where the ac­cused got the an­i­mals. Parsad said they got them in Venezuela. The mag­is­trate said: "That is my con­cern. You have im­port­ed an­i­mals in the coun­try with­out ad­e­quate su­per­vi­sion and quar­an­tine." He said mon­keys were known to car­ry yel­low fever and oth­er dis­eases.

"I won­der whether it is time to im­pose a jail sen­tence to send a mes­sage that $200 does not work any more...It may be a de­ter­rent to oth­er of­fend­ers," Ram­saran said. Parsad asked what sec­tion of the act gives the court the au­thor­i­ty to im­pose a jail sen­tence.

The mag­is­trate then rose to re­view the law.?When he re­turned, Ram­saran said, "It ap­pears that the court's hands are tied as to im­pose a fine. There is no pro­vi­sion for a cus­to­di­al sen­tence." He fined each man $200 or in de­fault 30 days' hard labour on each charge. Ram­saran or­dered that they pay the mon­ey forth­with.

The mag­is­trate al­so or­dered that the birds should be re­ha­bil­i­tat­ed and re­leased in­to the wild. Be­cause the mon­keys are ba­bies, they can­not be re­leased in­to the wild. In­stead the mag­is­trate or­dered that they should be en­trust­ed to Seep­er­sad and ex­am­ined by a vet­eri­nar­i­an.