An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A for­mer Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cer who was sus­pend­ed from du­ty in 2006 af­ter he was charged with kid­nap­ping, as­sault oc­ca­sion­ing ac­tu­al bod­i­ly harm, and lar­ce­ny of a cut­lass has been award­ed close to $750,000.

Ker­nel Dates, of Pem­broke, To­ba­go, was award­ed the sum af­ter he suc­cess­ful­ly sued the State for breach­ing his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights by re­fus­ing to make retroac­tive pay­ments of out­stand­ing ar­rears and lost wages due to him.

Dates en­tered the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in March 2000 as an SRP and was sus­pend­ed from du­ty in June 2006. The charges against him were dis­missed in Ju­ly 2007 in the Scar­bor­ough Mag­is­trate’s Court fol­low­ing the non-ap­pear­ance of the com­plainant.

How­ev­er, he was not re­in­stat­ed un­til 2011 and was ab­sorbed in­to the TTPS with ef­fect from March 2009 un­der the SRP 1000 Project.

In a let­ter dat­ed Oc­to­ber 18, 2011, the Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Ad­ju­tant wrote to the As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) and ad­vised that Dates be re­in­stat­ed and paid ar­rears in salary and oth­er ben­e­fits in ac­cor­dance with the prac­tice and pro­ce­dure for deal­ing with sus­pend­ed of­fi­cers whose charges had been dis­missed.

In a let­ter dat­ed May 24, 2020, the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice ad­vised Dates’ for­mer at­tor­ney Kel­ston Pope, in­di­cat­ing that the out­stand­ing ar­rears and ‘back pay’ is­sues had been for­ward­ed to the Fi­nance Branch to be as­sessed and ad­dressed.

How­ev­er, in June 2021, the TTPS ad­vised that Dates was not en­ti­tled to any salary, back­pay, al­lowances or ben­e­fits less de­duc­tions for the pe­ri­od June 29, 2006, to Ju­ly 17, 2011, as an SRP but a cal­cu­la­tion of the ar­rears of salary and al­lowances (in­clu­sive of back­pay) for the pe­ri­od March 6, 2009 to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2015, amount­ed to $231,415.50.

In his ap­pli­ca­tion, Dates ar­gued that the fail­ure to pay the out­stand­ing monies had re­sult­ed in fi­nan­cial hard­ship, as he was the sole bread­win­ner for his fam­i­ly, which in­clud­ed his wife, son and in-laws. He said he was forced to stop eat­ing meat to cut back on the gro­cery bill and stopped go­ing out as this re­quired new cloth­ing and spend­ing mon­ey which he could not af­ford.

In an oral rul­ing, High Court Judge Bet­sy Ann Lam­bert-Pe­ter­son de­clared that Dates’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights had been breached.

She award­ed $231,415.50 in com­pen­sato­ry dam­ages for the ar­rears of salaries owed and $24,000 for a spe­cial tax-free al­lowance owed. In ad­di­tion, she award­ed $200,000 in dam­ages for dis­tress and in­con­ve­nience, $200,000 in vin­di­ca­to­ry dam­ages and in­ter­est on com­pen­sato­ry dam­ages at five per cent from the date of claim to judg­ment.

Dates was rep­re­sent­ed by Se­nior Coun­sel Anand Ram­lo­gan SC who led Jared Ja­groo and Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al, in­struct­ed by Natasha Bis­ram.

The State was rep­re­sent­ed by Tinuke Gib­bons-Glen and Aryan­ta Williams in­struct­ed by Svet­lana Dass and Abi­gail Bris­to.