Liquor licence breaches lead to bonds and forfeitures in Arima

Two women have been con­vict­ed in sep­a­rate cas­es of sell­ing in­tox­i­cat­ing liquor with­out a valid li­cence, fol­low­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in the North­ern Di­vi­sion. Both mat­ters were heard be­fore Mag­is­trate Niko­las Ali at the Ari­ma Mag­is­trates’ Third Court, where guilty pleas were en­tered.

On June 10, Jacque­line Ram­ta­hal was con­vict­ed and bond­ed in the sum of TT$5,000 to keep the peace for three years. Should she fail to com­ply with the bond con­di­tions, she will be re­quired to re­turn to court for sen­tenc­ing. Ali al­so or­dered the de­struc­tion of all al­co­holic bev­er­ages seized dur­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Six days lat­er, on June 16, Mar­garet Castil­lo faced sim­i­lar charges. She was bond­ed in the sum of TT$5,000 to keep the peace for two years. In ad­di­tion to the de­struc­tion of seized al­co­hol, the court or­dered the for­fei­ture of TT$3,202, rep­re­sent­ing pro­ceeds from the un­law­ful sale of liquor. The funds are to be de­posit­ed in­to the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Fund.

The North­ern Di­vi­sion Gang In­tel­li­gence Unit not­ed the out­comes as part of its on­go­ing en­force­ment ef­forts against breach­es of the Liquor Li­cences Act, Chap­ter 84:10. Sec­tion 48(1) of the Act pro­hibits the sale of in­tox­i­cat­ing liquor with­out a valid li­cence, and au­thor­i­ties con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor and pros­e­cute of­fend­ers.

These con­vic­tions high­light the ju­di­cia­ry’s firm stance on il­le­gal al­co­hol sales, re­in­forc­ing the im­por­tance of com­pli­ance with li­cens­ing laws. The for­fei­ture of pro­ceeds and de­struc­tion of seized items serve as de­ter­rents, while the bonds en­sure ac­count­abil­i­ty over ex­tend­ed pe­ri­ods.