Caricel officials charged

OFFICIALS OF Symbiote Investments Limited, which trades as Caricel, were among several persons on Thursday charged with breaches of the Telecommunications Act following a ruling by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Symbiote CEO Lowell Lawrence, his wife, Minette Lawrence, who is the company secretary, as well as director Natalie Neil and principal of Xtrinet Limited, Livingston Hinds, have been charged with one count of conspiracy to use the spectrum without a licence and five counts of use of spectrum without a licence.

The accused are said to have acted in contravention of Section 63A (1) (b) of the Telecommunications Act, which states: “A person commits an offence if he engages in any of the following conduct: the use of the spectrum without first obtaining a spectrum.”

The four were this month listed as persons of interest by the police, who said that the accused could help them in the ongoing investigation into the raid of premises at Eastwood Avenue, St Andrew, on February 21.

On the day in question, combat-style police armed with high-powered weapons conducted an hours-long operation and seized property.

At the time, Mrs Lawrence said that she was surprised by the raid on the premises.

She said that when the Court of Appeal last year denied an application by Symbiote to stay the minister of science, energy and technology’s decision to revoke its telecommunications licences, it transferred its network assets to Xtrinet Limited.

Last year, the Court of Appeal also refused the company’s request that a temporary stay be granted until it makes an application for permission to appeal to the Privy Council.

Prior to that, the Supreme Court denied an application for judicial review of the decision by then energy minister Dr Andrew Wheatley to revoke the telecommunications licence granted to Symbiote.

In 2017, Wheatley told Parliament that Symbiote had not complied with all the conditions that were attached to its domestic mobile spectrum licence, with the issues including its failure to address the matter of outstanding fees.

Caricel was granted licences to operate in Jamaica by the Government in 2016 despite a recommendation from the contractor general not to do so.

FILE Minette Lawrence, company secretary, is animated as she speaks to journalists at a press conference held at Caricel’s head office at Eastwood Avenue, Kingston, on Wednesday, April 3, 2019. Beside her is husband Lowell Lawrence, CEO of Caricel.