– highlights ‘wheelbarrow incident didn’t settle debt’

ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has said that a large sum in court-ordered costs remain outstanding by the Mohamed family, despite a highly publicised attempt to settle part of the debt through their wheelbarrow spectacle.
Nandlall was at the time speaking on his weekly show, Issues in the News, during which he outlined a series of legal matters in which costs were awarded against the Mohameds, of which he noted many are yet to be paid.
He explained that in one constitutional challenge filed by the Mohamed’s against the Fugitive Offenders Act, the State successfully defended the matter after the applicants withdrew their appeal on the day it was scheduled to be heard.
As a result, the State was awarded $500,000 in costs in that matter just last week. However, the Attorney General noted that this is only one of several outstanding sums.
According to Nandlall, the Mohameds still owe $3 million in costs stemming from a separate matter at the Court of Appeal, for which he has already written to them but received no response.
Referencing the widely publicised incident in which one of the Mohameds brought two wheelbarrows filled with coins to the Attorney General’s Chambers, Nandlall said the gesture did little to satisfy the debt.
“He was supposed to pay $2 million there… he brought, I believe, $100,000 in coins,” Nandlall stated, noting that the law limits coin payments to $500. He added that approximately $99,500 from that particular sum remains outstanding.
The Attorney General further indicated that additional sums are also owed in matters before the Courts, along with other unspecified cost orders.
“These matters are still outstanding. This is the disrespect,” Nandlall said, while rejecting criticisms that he is targeting the Mohameds unfairly.
“My duties include collecting costs from those who owe the State costs in cases that they have lost,” he added.
Just last month, the opposition leader’s wheelbarrow of money stunt backfired as most of it could not be accepted as payment.
At that time, it was noted that in accordance with the law, only $500 in coins was accepted, with the remainder taken away.
The AG noted that the incident was an apparent effort to mock the court’s authority. “So, this little circus and this little attempt at ridicule have really backfired against him,” he said.
He stressed that court orders carry binding obligations, noting, “Court orders by law impose… uncompromising obligations upon those to whom they relate and against whom they are issued.”