Schoolboy, businessman on stolen motor car rap

A high schoolboy and a businessman, who the police say are allegedly part of a car-stealing ring and who were both found with a stolen motor car, were denied bail yesterday when they appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

The 16-year-old teenager reportedly met with the car owner and was testing-driving the Nissan Note motor car when two men held them up and robbed them of the vehicle.

The alleged robbery took place on April 20 at the Harbour View Shopping Centre in Kingston. A few weeks later, on May 29, the complainant was at a fast-food restaurant in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, when he saw a car that resembled his and called the police.

When the police arrived, the businessman, Rushawn Hurd, who was in the passenger seat, reportedly told the lawmen that he had bought the car for $485,000, and produced a receipt.

The complainant reportedly pointed out the teenager as the person who was test-driving the car when it was stolen.

Both were taken into custody and charged. Hurd is facing a charge of receiving stolen motor car while the teenager is charged with robbery with aggravation.

However, yesterday, when the matter was mentioned, the lawyers for both accused denied their involvement in the robbery.

Attorney-at-law John Clarke, who is representing the student, argued that the issue of identity will be a factor in the case as the complainant had pointed out in his statement that the teen looked like the person who was test-driving the car. Furthermore, he told Chief Parish Judge Chester Crooks that his client had never visited Harbour View.

Clarke, while noting that his client was still under his father’s care, suggested that the court impose a curfew order.

Hurd’s lawyer, Carole Phillips, said that her client vehemently denied the allegations. Phillips said that her client had purchased the car from a man who he met on Facebook and registered the vehicle before he was arrested. She further submitted that her client had no previous conviction.

Phillips, in urging the judge to offer her client bail, highlighted that Hurd was forced to close down his shop because of his arrest and that he was the main breadwinner of his family, which includes his two-year-old son and unemployed spouse.

However, Judge Crooks told them that he was not minded to grant them bail and remanded both accused until September 1.