A HEAVY-duty equipment operator attached to Crown Mining Supplies was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment by Magistrate Ann McLennan for causing death by dangerous driving.Balgobin Persaud, 69, of 155 La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, was on Tuesday found guilty after a trial. The court heard that on August 6, 2014, at Dennis Street, Campbellville, Georgetown, he drove a forklift in a dangerous manner causing the death of Latchman Sukdeo, who was an employee of the University of Guyana library.

Persaud made his first court appearance before City Magistrate Judy Latchman on August 26, 2014, and was granted $1M bail after denying the charge and the matter was transferred to Magistrate McLennan for trial.
The pensioner was convicted after Magistrate McLennan found that there was sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case against him due to her being satisfied by the submission that was lead by the prosecutor Sergeant Neville Jeffers, who proved that the man drove the vehicle in a dangerous manner resulting in Sukdeo’s death. Persaud was driving the forklift when he turned onto Dennis Street, causing two metal spikes from the forklift to collide with the motorcycle that Sukdeo was riding.
The injured man was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he succumbed while receiving treatment. The matter was reported, and subsequent investigations led to Persaud being arrested and charged.
Persaud, who had given an unsworn statement when he was offered the opportunity to lead his defence in court, explained that he was driving the forklift along Dennis Street when he noticed a motorcycle being driven towards him. He said when the motorcycle got close to where the forklift was situated, the driver swerved away from a pothole causing him to swerve into the lane in which he was driving the forklift. He said after the incident, public- spirited persons took the cyclist to the hospital