Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young says he fore­sees in­creased fines and penal­ties for the pub­lic use of banned cam­ou­flage wear as well as po­lice uni­forms.

He made the com­ment dur­ing yes­ter­day's sit­ting of Par­lia­ment as the is­sue of the re­cent kid­nap­ping of Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies em­ploy­ee Maria Dass-Su­per­sad came up. Two of the sus­pects who grabbed Dass-Su­per­sad from the UWI St Au­gus­tine cam­pus were said to have been dressed in a uni­form marked "po­lice" and a cam­ou­flage out­fit.

Young re­it­er­at­ed it was a crime for cit­i­zens who are not mem­bers ei­ther the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice of the De­fence Force to use po­lice or army uni­forms. He said the sit­u­a­tion was of se­ri­ous con­cern to Gov­ern­ment.

"We're en­gaged in dis­cus­sions with the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice and T&T De­fence Force to ask them to put more mea­sures in place to en­sure that le­git­i­mate po­lice and army uni­forms aren't be­ing used in the com­mit­tal of these crimes. There have been a few in­stances where this has tak­en place," he said.

He said such per­sons who are de­tained are be­ing pros­e­cut­ed. He added that in a re­cent kid­nap­ping, uni­forms were loaned to al­leged per­pe­tra­tors and such peo­ple are be­fore the courts.