THREE men were on Monday sentenced to nine years each for a series of armed robberies and the abduction of a taxi driver on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).
Rawle Franklyn, called “Rawle Dog,” 34, of Sparendaam Housing Scheme, along with Emmanuel Hale, 19, and Hamza Samuels, called “Bad Coolie,” 33, both residents of ‘B’ Field, Sophia, were sentenced by Magistrate Rushelle Liverpool at the Sparendaam Magistrates’ Court.

They were found guilty of three counts of armed robbery and one count of abduction.
The first charge stated that Hale and Samuels on August 18, at Ogle, while being in the company of others, allegedly robbed Madan Ramdeo of a cellphone and cash totalling $73,000.

It was further alleged that on the same date, at Red Road Sophia, they robbed Jenny Mingo of $293,000 in various items.
The third charge alleged that on the same date, at Vryheid’s Lust, ECD, they robbed Joshua Singh of his $1.7 million Allion motorcar, along with his cellphone and cash.

The men were also charged with abducting Singh during the robbery, with intent to cause him to be secretly confined.
For each robbery charge, the men were sentenced to serve five years, with one year deducted for time spent on remand. This means that they will serve a total of four years for the robberies.

Additionally, they were each sentenced to serve five years on the abduction charge, and this sentence will run consecutively with the robbery sentence.
The state was represented by police prosecutor, Sergeant Ramjattan.
The men are accused of being part of a gang that carried out a series of robberies in Georgetown and along the East Coast corridor.
The men were nabbed during a police chase which led to a shoot-out in the wee hours of August 19, 2022, at Hunter Street and Mandela Avenue, Georgetown, in the vicinity of DSL.

There, the vehicle crashed into a rail and the men were subsequently arrested. They currently have other matters pending in several courts.
Franklyn is no stranger to the courts. In 2017, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the illegal possession of a gun and ammunition.