Shastri Boodan
President of the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) Richie Sookhai is warning people who wish to undertake business in public spaces to practice due diligence to avoid getting robbed, killed or scammed.
Sookhai said a number of people are using malls, car parks and office buildings as meeting places to sell goods they advertise on social media sites.
He said this puts both sellers and buyers at risk of becoming victims of crime noting that last Saturday 25-year-old Curtis Smith of Diego Martin was gunned down when he went to Sun Plaza at Munroe Road to sell a Mitsubishi Lancer.
“It is truly unsafe right now given the current environment where it pertains to crime. Individuals need to be very cautious and do due diligence with the individuals they are conducting transactions with. Although you do get requests via Facebook or online, they do get requests to meet in public spaces. However these public spaces are not always secure. The security that they provide ( at the malls) are for their tenants and patrons and they may not be able to protect these individuals that may run into issues while constructing these transactions,” Sookhai said.
He suggested that if large sums of money are involved persons should consider doing a wire transfer or walking with their own private security and added that criminals are constantly stalking buyers and sellers online.
He said the CCIC would be liaising with private security firms so they may be able to provide a one-off security service for persons doing public transactions.
“If malls do decide to lease such a space they would need added security and insurance to cover liabilities.”
He said a lot of consumers are now cautious of where they patronize.
“Crime is now taking place in areas where historically we did not have crime.”