Derek Achong

A man from To­co, con­vict­ed of ab­duct­ing and rob­bing two women while pos­ing as a PH taxi dri­ver in 2020, has been sen­tenced to four years in prison.

Jaleel Ash­ton was sen­tenced by Se­nior Mag­is­trate Bri­an Dabideen on Thurs­day af­ter­noon, af­ter he was found guilty of rob­bery with vi­o­lence, rob­bery with ag­gra­va­tion and two kid­nap­ping charges.

Mag­is­trate Dabideen ruled that four years in prison with hard labour would be an ap­pro­pri­ate sen­tence for each charge.

Ash­ton is ex­pect­ed to be re­leased in four years’ time, as Mag­is­trate Dabideen or­dered that the sen­tences run con­cur­rent­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the ev­i­dence in the cas­es, Ash­ton was al­leged to have com­mit­ted the crimes on No­vem­ber 17 and 24, 2020.

In the first in­ci­dent, Ash­ton al­leged­ly picked up the vic­tim in Ch­aguara­mas and she asked to be tak­en to Port-of-Spain.

Up­on reach­ing George Cabral Street in St James, how­ev­er, Ash­ton told the vic­tim he had a gun in his side bag and took her hand­bag, in which she had a car­ton of cig­a­rettes val­ued at $284 and $3,079 in cash. He then dropped her off at the cor­ner of Shine and Duke Streets in Port-of-Spain.

In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, Ash­ton and an un­named ac­com­plice, who was pre­tend­ing to be a pas­sen­ger in his car, picked up the sec­ond vic­tim, who was trav­el­ling to Care­nage, in West­moor­ings.

Up­on reach­ing Glen­coe, the ac­com­plice placed his hand around the vic­tim’s neck and robbed her of a cell­phone val­ued at $6,500 and a $3,000 gold chain. The men then drove to Mac­queripe Bay, where they re­leased her be­fore dri­ving away.

Ash­ton re­port­ed­ly de­nied any wrong­do­ing when he was ar­rest­ed fol­low­ing the sec­ond in­ci­dent.