FIVE policemen were freed of a joint robbery charge by Night Court Magistrate Brenden Glasford at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The policemen, Constable Kofi Arthur, 25; Constable Raphael Lowenfield, 25; Constable Akeem Thompson, 21; Lance Corporal Mark Fernandez, 34; and Constable Delroy Duncan, 23, were feed of the charge due to lack of evidence.

In August, the officers made their first court appearance and pleaded not guilty to the charges which stated that on July 25 at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, they robbed Urie Samuels of six pennyweights raw gold valued $66,000 and Sherman Noel of five pennyweights raw gold valued $55,000 and four pennyweight of raw gold valued $44,000, belonging to Harillal Gildarie.

The policemen were released on $600,000 bail.
The matter involving the virtual complainants, Samuels and Gildarie, was however dismissed two weeks ago due to the same lack of evidence by the prosecution.
The magistrate on Friday ruled that a prima facie was not made out against the lawmen in the matter involving robbery with regard to Sherman Noel and dismissed the case.
Glasford ruled that the prosecution had initially proposed to call 10 witnesses in the matter to testify, but only six came to the court.

He also pointed out that there was not identification parade held between the lawmen and Noel.
According to the defence attorney Patrice Henry, the policemen were on patrol on the day in question when they carried out a search with instructions at the military base camp on the virtual complainants, but did not discover anything illegal on them.
It was then the policemen decided to set them free. It was not until three days later, allegations of robbery were laid against the policemen.