SASCHA WIL­SON

Bail in the sum of $1.3 mil­lion has been grant­ed to a se­nior po­lice­man and three se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers on charges aris­ing out of the al­leged kid­nap­ping of a 29-year-old man.

Sgt Pre­ston George, 43, last at­tached to the Po­lice Acad­e­my Dri­ving School, Es­tate Su­per­in­ten­dent and own­er of J178 Se­cu­ri­ty Ltd, El­don Asoon, 55, and his two em­ploy­ees Leon Ed­wards, 33, and Keon Attzs, 31, ap­peared in the Siparia Mag­is­trates' Court joint­ly charged with kid­nap­ping and false im­pris­on­ment.

George, who has 20 years ser­vice, faced an ad­di­tion­al charge of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

They were charged in re­la­tion to an in­ci­dent on June 11, 2019 which was re­port­ed to the Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau (PSB).

It is al­leged that Asoon, a debt col­lec­tor for over 32 years, and the two oth­er se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers ap­proached the vic­tim and de­mand­ed he pay an out­stand­ing debt.

It is fur­ther al­leged, ac­cord­ing to a TTPS re­lease, that the vic­tim was forced in the back of a po­lice ve­hi­cle “that was of­fi­cial­ly placed in George’s care.”

The vic­tim was tak­en to the Oropouche Po­lice Sta­tion where it is al­leged that George made a false en­try in­to the sta­tion’s di­ary in an at­tempt to con­ceal the in­ci­dent.

Fol­low­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions su­per­vised by PSB’s ACP To­taram Dookhie and in­clud­ing ASP An­tho­ny Re­my, In­sp Shel­don Hills and Cpl Lawrence Joe­field, the four men were ar­rest­ed on Wednes­day.

They were charged by Cpl Ralph Ram­per­sad.

At the Siparia CID on Sun­day, a jus­tice of the peace grant­ed George $400,000 bail while the se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers were each grant­ed bail in the sum of $300,000.

When they ap­peared be­fore Sec­ond Court Mag­is­trate Ava Van­den­berg-Bai­ley, the charges were read to them, but they were not asked to en­ter a plea.

Po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Shel­don Salazar dis­closed a sum­ma­ry of ev­i­dence to the de­fence.

He in­di­cat­ed that the file would have to be sent to the of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions for a state at­tor­ney to be ap­point­ed in the mat­ter as one of the ac­cused is a po­lice of­fi­cer.

George was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Fitzroy Fred­er­icks, a for­mer as­sis­tant com­mis­sion­er of po­lice, and Ul­ric Skeritt while the se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers were rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Don­nette Julien.

The mat­ter trans­ferred to the First Court for Oc­to­ber 30.