Cop behind bars
Former police constable Abdul Rahiman will have to undergo the six months’ imprisonment inflicted  by the Intermediate Court under count 1 for larceny of a Mr Best card of the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB). His appeal against his conviction under this count and for another 3 months under count 5, for forgery in a Police Occurence Book, has been rejected by Justices A.F. Chui Yew Cheong and Rehana Mungly-Gulbul.

As for the appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)  in the same case contesting the judgment of the Magistrate for having  dismissed  counts 3 and  4 for which the appellant was charged with the offence of swindling by fictitious character, namely he unlawfully made use or an automatic teller machine card called Mr Best together with a pin code, the appeal bench has ordered these two issues to be  tried anew before a new constituted bench.

The magistrate who delivered the judgment is no more exercising her profession. “However in the circumstances of the present case, we leave it to the discretion of the learned  Director of Public Prosecutions as to whether he will consider further proceedings under counts 3 and 4 to be advisable,” underlined the two judges in their judgment.

Appellant was prosecuted under six counts. Count 2 referred to unlawful possession of a Mr Best card of the MCB and count 6 concerned the forgery of a statement from a statement pad at Line Barracks Police Station.

Employee compensated 
Alpha Cleaning Ltd will have to compensate its employee,  Joseph Leboeuf, for Rs 85,000 after the latter was severely burnt in his right hand with caustic soda whilst he was cleaning the floor of Indian Oil premises at Mer Rouge, Roche Bois. Plaintiff had claimed damages from his employer amounting to Rs  407.750 for the  prejudice  he sustained.

It is the plaintiff’s contention that the said accident occurred entirely through the fault, negligence and imprudence  of the defendant company which he contended failed to comply with the provisions of the Occupational Safety Health  and Welfare Act No 34 of 1988. He averred  that  the gloves supplied by  his employer were not up to the standard required for cleaning whilst using corrosive  solution.