Caricel officials to know on Friday if charges against them will be dismissed

Company Officers of Symbiote Investments Limited trading as Caricel will know on Friday if their application will be upheld for charges against them to be dismissed.

Those charged are Symbiote CEO and director Lowell Lawrence, his wife, Minette Lawrence, who is the company secretary, Natalie Neil, company director, and Livingston Hinds, principal shareholder and director of Xtrinet.

They were charged in February 2020 after they were accused of breaching the Telecommunications Act by broadcasting without a Spectrum licence.

The defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy to use the spectrum without a licence  and five counts of use of spectrum without a licence.

When they appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court last week Tuesday, their lawyers asked Parish Judge Maxine Ellis to dismiss the charges because they were an abuse of process.

The lawyers asked that the charges should be dismissed on the grounds that: "A company secretary cannot be charged for operational matters in the absence of evidence, merely because she is an officer of the company." 

 “A charge of conspiracy to breach the Telecommunications  Act, contrary to the common law is not a legally permissible charge as such an offence does not exist in the common law.

“A charge of conspiracy to commit an offence cannot be laid along with a charge for committing the offence. All persons were charged with conspiracy and with committing the offence of broadcasting without a licence.”

It was also argued that the charge of conspiracy was specifically laid in order to give  the police grounds for arresting the defendants in a public and humiliating manner.

The lawyers submitted that the offences being summary in nature were not arrestable offences, but the police having forcibly shut down the Caricel operations and seized the equipment wanted to publicly justify their conduct and retain custody of the equipment. They say this worked to prevent resumption of any commercial activity, including the lawful activities of Xtrinet, (Caricel's successor to the business).

In response to the submissions, by defence lawyers Dr Mario Anderson, Danielle Archer and Michael Williams, the judge sought to persuade the prosecution  to answer the submissions definitively and say whether there was in fact any evidence to support the charges.

The judge adjourned the case to June 30  for the prosecution  to put in writing the full allegations supporting the charges at which time a ruling on the defendants' application will be made.

Equipment valued at over US$9 million were seized by the police in February 2020 and the judge has ordered inspection of the equipment by the defendants and their experts on or before July 20.

-Barbara Gayle

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