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WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 23, 2015
VOLUME 109, No.52
www.thevincentian.com
EC$1.50
HISTORIC RULING IN SVG HIGH COURT
Justice Kathy Ann Latchoo presided over an historic decision in the local High Court
HIGH COURT JUDGE, THE HONOURABLE Madame Justice Kathy Ann Latchoo has made the first Confiscation Order here, under the Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, Chapter 181 of the Laws of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Revised Edition 2009. She did so at the High Court in Kingstown, today, the 22nd of December 2015. In sentencing Khamal Tito DeRoche, also known as ‘Travey’, of Sion Hill, for the offence of possession with intent to supply 4,299 grammes of cocaine, Justice Latchoo found that DeRoche has benefited from drug trafficking in the sum of $686, 118.63 over the sixyear period prior to his arrest on the 14th of November 2012. Justice Latchoo however ruled that his realizable assets amounted to $109,459.34, consisting mainly of rental vehicles and accounts at a bank and credit unions. The Crown will be at liberty to apply for further sums, if in the future he acquires new
assets. DeRoche was ordered to pay the $109,459.34 to the Registrar of the High Court by the 30th of March 2016, or serve seven years imprisonment in default. That sum, once paid, will be transferred to the Confiscated Assets Fund. On the substantive charge of possession with intent to supply, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with the time of eleven months spent on remand to be deducted. DeRoche was convicted at the Serious Offences Court in January 2015, following a full trial. He was intercepted by members of the Narcotics Unit of the Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines DPP Colin Williams anticipates that there will Police Force at Sion Hill Bay, be an increase in the number of confiscations. shortly after 6:00 pm. A crucial witness for the Prosecution was without any corresponding legitimate source of income. a Director of Public Prosecutions, young man from Frenches, who was DPP, Colin Williams, said it was a in the trunk of the vehicle, and who good day for law enforcement and the said he was paid by DeRoche to retrieve the drugs from a vessel. Upon rule of law. In complimenting both the Narcotics Unit and the FIU for a job DeRoche’s conviction, the Director of Public Prosecutions requested that the well done, the DPP noted that he expects to see an increase in the matter be sent on to the High Court number of confiscations, as one of the for confiscation to be considered. Based on the Prosecution Statement most important weapons against acquisitive crimes and criminality is to prepared by Corporal Pedro Harry of the Financial Intelligence Unit, it was take away the ill-gotten gains of the perpetrators. (Source: Office of the shown that DeRoche accumulated Director of Prosecutions) assets over the relevant period