DAYS after thieves broke into the popular Guyanese jewellery store, L. Seepersaud Maraj and Sons located inside the Stabroek Market and carted off $22M worth in jewellery, three known felons were on Friday charged for the crime.

The men, Albert DeFreitas, 54 of Leopold Street, Georgetown, Treon Parks 31 of Eccles, East Bank Demerara and Clifford Rodney, 66 of One Mile, Linden were not required to plead to the indictable charge when it was read to them by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
The charge reads that between July 2, 2018 and July 3, 2018 at Stabroek Market the men broke and entered the jewellery store of L. Seepersaud Maraj and stole a quantity of gold and diamond jewellery worth $22M.

Rodney is represented by attorney Pamela DaSantos while Parks is represented by Adrian Thompson.

The lawyers begged the court for their clients to be released on bail, since they were beaten and tortured by the police to confess to the crime.
Meanwhile, attorney Pamela DaSantos disclosed that her client, Rodney, is a business partner with the other two accused. She noted that investigators had said that they have CCTV footage of the trio staying at the Sleep Inn hotel.

Nevertheless, Police Prosecutor Inspector Neville Jeffers told the court that all three defendants are known to the police and have similar matters before the court.
Jeffers disclosed that Rodney had confessed to using a blow-torch to open the vault door of the jewellery establishment, while DeFreitas told ranks that he assisted Rodney in carrying out the heist.

The chief magistrate remanded the trio to prison on the basis that they were all repeat offenders and adjourned the matter until July 23.

According to reports, on Tuesday, upon arriving at work an employee of the establishment discovered that the establishment had been vandalised.

Reports indicate that the staff observed the front grill of the store open and upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the vault door was also open. The staff immediately contacted the proprietor who visited and noted that a large quantity of gold and diamond jewellery was missing.

A police source said the robbers gained entry to the store from the eastern grill by cutting the locks and disabling the alarm systems before blow-torching the vault door open.
It was noted that the bandits had taken took several hours to complete their operation, since there were three major security doors before the vault.