Ready for court

Article by RACHELLE AGARD

PUBLIC SERVICE VEHICLE (PSV) operators are planning to sue Government for $15 million.

This after one of their own was given an absolute discharge by Magistrate Graveney Bannister last Friday after appearing in the Bridgetown Traffic Court.

According to a source in the discussions, following a meeting held with the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) over the weekend, operators were now looking to recover all the monies they paid out in fines over the last five years, which they roughly estimated at more than $15 million.

“This is based on about five to six years because some of the operators have paid $500 to $1 000 in [forthwith] fines to avoid jail time. Some of them were imprisoned because they could not come up with the money. Therefore, a lot of them were imprisoned wrongfully, and to my understanding, compensation for erroneous imprisonment equates to about $1500 per day,” the PSV owner told the NATION yesterday.

He added operators were trying to engage the services of Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley, the former Minister of Transport and Works, to represent them. Lashley was counsel for the PSV worker who was discharged last Friday.

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