A sol­dier in the T&T De­fence Force was ar­rest­ed and charged with two traf­fic of­fences on Tues­day, af­ter be­ing stopped by of­fi­cers of the T&T Tran­sit Po­lice who were on pa­trol along the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route in Arou­ca.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, around 9.45 am, the of­fi­cers were pa­trolling along the PBR in an un­marked po­lice ve­hi­cle that was equipped with lights and a siren. The of­fi­cers saw a blue Toy­ota Corol­la head­ing east along the PBR, hav­ing en­tered the PBR from the Bon Air traf­fic light along the East­ern Main Road. The of­fi­cers sub­se­quent­ly stopped the ve­hi­cle near Ba­ca­day Road.

The of­fi­cers then asked the oc­cu­pant for his dri­ver’s per­mit and cer­tifi­cate of in­sur­ance.

The dri­ver re­port­ed­ly re­spond­ed, “Of­fi­cer, my DP in camp, of­fi­cer all ah we is one, of­fi­cer I just come out de road to buy a tank of gas.”

A cer­tifi­cate of in­sur­ance was sub­se­quent­ly pro­duced by the dri­ver but when the of­fi­cer asked him for his per­mit, he re­port­ed­ly said, “Of­fi­cer I re­al sor­ry, of­fi­cer I sor­ry.”

When the of­fi­cers sub­se­quent­ly checked the dri­ver’s in­for­ma­tion, they re­alised he was a sol­dier from San­ta Cruz. How­ev­er, he had been dis­qual­i­fied from dri­ving for a pe­ri­od of one year, which was set to ex­pire next year.

The dri­ver was lat­er tak­en to the Tran­sit Po­lice head­quar­ters where he was charged by WPC Ja­cob with dri­ving with­out a valid cer­tifi­cate of in­sur­ance and dri­ving while dis­qual­i­fied. The sol­dier is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear vir­tu­al­ly in court lat­er this week.