A St James-based police constable who was reportedly held in Trelawny with a stolen motor car, a day after the car went missing in Kingston, was further remanded when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court, yesterday.

Constable Garry Hamilton, who is assigned to the Freeport Police Station, was arrested on June 12 after he was reportedly caught driving the stolen Nissan Tida motorcar on a section of the North Coast Highway in Trelawny.

When the matter was mentioned yesterday, attorney Kemar Robinson, in seeking bail for his client, maintained that the policeman received the car in St Ann from someone and was not aware that it was stolen.

The attorney further told Parish Judge Chester Crooks that the part-heard bail application was postponed on the last occasion for the court to receive footage of the toll road to show whether or not his client was the one driving the vehicle.

But the prosecutor told the court that she has only received images and that they are faded. However, she said the court is awaiting a report from the Communication Forensic and Cybercrimes Unit (CFCU) in relation to Hamilton’s phone.

Robinson, however, told the court that he was the one who had suggested that the police examine his client’s phone to see where he was, as his client was never in Kingston.

But the judge said, “The inference can be drawn that he was not acting alone.”

Furthermore, Judge Crooks said, the accused is a trained person and should have recognised certain red flags.

He told Robinson that he was not in a position to make an informed decision without the report, but promised that if the report was not forthcoming on the next court hearing on August 8, he will make a decision on the bail application.

The accused was subsequently remanded.

According to a police report, the motor car was stolen in the East Kingston area on June 11.

Contact was made at a security company and a tracker that was placed on the vehicle revealed that it was on the North Coast Highway.

The Nissan Tida motor car was reportedly intercepted in Trelawny on Monday with the constable as the sole occupant.

The car was searched and a driver’s licence belonging to the owner as well as documents for the motor car bearing her name and other personal items were found.

It was also observed that the ignition was damaged as well as the area where the alarm system was installed and the radio was missing from the motor car.

When questioned the constable reportedly told the police that he was asked to pick up the motor car in St Ann by a friend.

He was relieved of his licensed Glock pistol and 17 rounds of ammunition which he had in his possession, as well as his cellular phone.

— Tanesha Mundle