THE car insurance matter against Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls was yesterday dismissed by Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.

McNicolls had been charged with permitting his bodyguard, police constable Sean Simon, to drive his vehicle without a valid insurance policy, while Simon was charged with driving McNicolls’s Mitsubishi L200 Hilux van without valid insurance. The charges stemmed from an accident along the Lady Young Road, Belmont, on February 20.

After listening to arguments by both the prosecution and the defence, Cardenas-Ragoonanan said the State had failed to build a prima facie case against the Chief Magistrate. Israel Khan SC, one of the attorneys representing both men, told the court that it was never a vehicle that was insured, but an individual to drive such vehicle or any in its class.

’It’s not the car that is insured. It’s the person. Simon was covered by insurance and he had all right to drive the vehicle. McNicolls did not permit him to drive the vehicle illegally,’ he said.

In response, State prosecutor Renuka Rambhajan said even though this may be so, Simon was permitted to drive only private vehicles and not ’T’ vehicles which is licensed for transporting goods. Cardenas-Ragoonanan disagreed, saying this would only apply if Simon had indeed been transporting goods with the van.

Throughout the case, both Khan and McNicolls’s other attorney, Ian Benjamin, had argued that at the time of the accident the vehicle was covered by a valid insurance policy, and that it was not a question of McNicolls not having a valid insurance policy, but a valid insurance certificate. The defence said McNicolls had an ’automatic renewal policy’ with Capital Insurance which meant that at the time of the accident his policy was enforced.

The prosecution had argued that an insurance policy is only given effect with the renewal of the insurance certificate. The insurance certificate showed that it had expired last December and had only been renewed a few hours after the accident occurred.

In making her ruling, Cardenas-Ragoonanan said she had done extensive research and found that there was no such thing as an automatic renewal of an insurance policy, but she agreed that Simon did nothing illegal by driving the vehicle. ’I am satisfied that at the time of the accident, Simon was properly insured (to drive the vehicle). His insurance offered him coverage to drive any other vehicle,’ she said, before dismissing his matter. She added that since Simon’s charge was dismissed, then McNicolls had no charge to answer.

After the ruling when asked to comment, McNicolls simply said that ’the court had spoken’.