By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTWO JAMAICANS employed to American Airlines have been freed in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court of the unlawful possession of US$197,000.
They are Robert Phang, 34, and Jacqueline Hall, 35, who were arrested in February this year at the Sangster International Airport when the money was found in bags they were carrying. It was the second case of unlawful possession of money within the last four weeks which ended in acquittal.
The Court of Appeal on May 3 freed Hanover businessman Hervin Lawrence of unlawful possession of US$65,000. The court said then that the mere fact that a man was sweating on an aeroplane was not sufficient ground for reasonable suspicion. The court said also that because Lawrence's pockets were bulging was not sufficient evidence that the money was unlawfully obtained.
SUSPICIONS
Police Constable Tishan Gordon had testified at the trial on June 3 that when he saw Phang and Hall at the airport, they looked in his direction and then spoke to each other. They immediately left the terminal building and he became suspicious and followed them to the car park. He said they both had US currency in their bags which totalled US$197,000. Constable Gordon said Phang told him at first that he did not know anything about the money, but subsequently, told him it belonged to his aunt, Peggy Spencer-Ewen, with whom he had stayed in St. Elizabeth.
When Hall was questioned, Constable Gordon said she told him that she did not know how the money got into her luggage.
Attorney-at-law.Hugh Thompson, who represented Phang, and Eric Frater who represented Hall, made no case submissions on the ground that their clients should not be called upon to account for the money because the evidence to ground suspicion was inadequate. Resident Magistrate Valrie Stephens ruled that Phang and Hall should account for the money.
Phang testified that the money was given to him by his aunt and called her as a witness. She told the court that she had lent Phang the money. Phang said he had put a portion of the money in Hall's bag without her knowledge and consent. Hall said in her defence that she did not know that money was in her bag.
The Resident Magistrate, in freeing the accused on June 3, said that, on a balance of probability, she was satisfied with the accounts they had given.
