-placed on $1.5M bail

SANJAY Persaud of Sheriff Street, Campbellville, Georgetown, on Friday appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates Court charged with causing death by dangerous driving committed on Leon Hunt, 55, of Stone Avenue Blygezigt. 

The accident occurred late on Wednesday night along Lamaha Street, Newtown.
The businessman appeared before Magistrate Judy Latchman and was placed on $1.5M bail. He will return to court on October 3, 2014.
Leon Hunt, a mute who worked at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, was killed when he was struck by the sports car driven by Persaud on Wednesday.
Speaking with this newspaper via telephone from a private hospital in Georgetown on Thursday morning, businessman Sanjay Persaud said that he was proceeding along Lamaha Street when Hunt, who was riding in the opposite direction between Middleton and De Abreu Streets, was struck by the car which later slammed into a utility pole.
The businessman told this newspaper that he called the police after the accident and waited for them to arrive before leaving the scene, but police sources disputed that claim on Thursday stating that the man left the scene before police arrived.

He checked himself into a private room at a private hospital, causing ranks to be unable to access him to perform a breathalyser test. However, ‘A’ Division Traffic Officer Ramesh Ashram told the Chronicle on Friday that a test was carried out on the man at approximately 13:00 hrs on Thursday and it read negative for alcohol consumption.
However, one man who witnessed the accident told this newspaper that the businessman had erred and was driving at a fast rate along the roadway. The eyewitness refuted claims that the man was heading in the opposite direction to the businessman’s vehicle.
On Thursday when this newspaper showed up at the Kitty Police Station, where the rank(s) investigating the accident are based, relatives of the deceased explained that they received the news of the death from a caller. A male relative said he had been informed that Hunt was involved in a fatal accident.
Hunt had no children or a wife and had been living with his cousin and in-laws for the past 15 years. After giving a statement to the police on Thursday, a relative and another female were escorted to the vehicle of the businessman’s wife, who took them to speak with the businessman at the hospital.
Asked if there would be a settlement in relation to the matter, a relative of the deceased said that he was not sure, but he has the impression that it could be the reason the woman was waiting to take him to the businessman. The businessman’s wife also could not say if there would be a settlement in the matter.
Also at the Kitty Police Station on Thursday, the vehicle which the businessman was driving was parked on top of a tow truck which had initially removed the vehicle from the scene of the accident on Wednesday.
The left front side of the car was badly damaged and the windscreen of the car was also broken. The registration number plates for the car were also removed.

(By Leroy Smiith)