Headline News

Wind farm dropped for radar

Cayman News | 15/10/2010 | 44 Comments

(CNS): Proposals for a possible wind farm in East End have been stopped in its tracks as a result of the government’s plans to erect a Doppler radar in the same area. Hopes of opening up Cayman’s first an alternative energy source with a 200ft wind tower in the High Rock area have been dashed in favour of the radar project which government says will fill an important weather tracking black hole. The government said in a statement on Thursday evening that despite the need to find alternative energy sources the Ministry of Works said it was supporting the radar as a priority and could risk losing the funding if it didn’t

CNS understands that the wind turbine idea had gained traction with CUC which was examining the possibility of generating power through this natural resource and had been conducting a feasibility study to measure the consistency of the wind in the area. Some sixteen acres of land was also set to be leased in order to construct the turbine. However, the ministry says that the radar and the wind farm cannot share the same space and the radar gets priority.

“This site was identified by a team of experts from the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation as the most suitable for the optimal functioning of the radar. They looked at accessibility, power supply in the area, elevation and the fact that the site was inland, protected from sea spray,” the ministry said. “Proposals have been received to establish a wind farm in the same area, however national and regional safety concerns make the choice for the Doppler equipment site inevitable.”

The ministry said the as Cayman is considered to be at higher risk of hurricanes than any other island in the region there is a serious need for local radar, which was demonstrated by such storms as Gilbert (1988), Mitch (1998), Ivan (2004) and Paloma (2008) all of which took the country by surprise due to the lack of localised weather information.

“The Doppler radar will give our National Weather Service more accurate, timely and real-time information,” the ministry stated , adding that it will serve the entire Caribbean, filling a gap in the recently implemented regional radar network coverage.

The ministry denied that by supporting the Doppler radar project unreservedly that it was therefore against alternative energy but that this was a vital project that had been in the works for almost a decade and had taken a long time to find funding. “Securing the necessary funding from the European Union took years of advocating….. If this opportunity is not utilised at this time, then there is every chance that the necessary funding will be withdrawn,” officials said.

Premier & deputy both o’seas

Cayman News | 14/10/2010 | 49 Comments

(CNS): Education Minister Rolston Anglin is acting as premier again as a result of both the premier and the deputy premier being overseas. McKeeva Bush in his capacity as Minister of Finance is in Tampa, Florida, where he is attending the American Society of Health Risk Management Conference and Exhibition. Bush is expected back on island tomorrow (Friday 15 October) and will be remaining in the Cayman Islands throughout next week, the premier’s press office said. Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor Connolly and Cline Glidden MLA are in the Bahamas, where they are attending the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum Conference.

Glidden is attending the Nassau conference in relation to his responsibilities for the landfill and the recently issued Waste to Energy RFP, which fall under the deputy premier’s ministry. According to information from the premier’s press secretary, the latest challenges, solutions, technologies and projects in renewable energy will be discussedand debated at this conference.

The Cayman Islands delegation in Tampa comprises over 30 representatives from the industry, government and CIMA. The Cayman Islands is a regular exhibitor at the American Society of Health Risk Management, the press office said. The premier was also scheduled to give a brief address at the Cayman Islands reception on Thursday evening.

CNS asked the premier’s press office for details of all the Cabinet minister and government MLA travel plans over the next week, but aside from confirming that Bush would be in Cayman next week, the office was unable to say where other government members would be.

Armed masked men shoot out shop door

Cayman News | 14/10/2010 | 27 Comments

(CNS): Updated 5pm – Burglars used a gun to shoot open the doors of a George Town store last night and then made off with the cash register and cigarettes. George Town detectives have launched an investigation following the aggravated burglary of Reflections Food For Less in Godfrey Nixon Way. The four masked men, two of which were armed with a gun, fired several shots at the doors of the premises, shattering the glass, at around 1:30am Thursday morning 14 Oct. The suspects all of whom were wearing masks were last seen running away with the cash register towards Washington Boulevard. (Photo-Bullet hits chocolate -by Dennie WarrenJr)

Although staff were on duty in the store at the time no one was injured. One of the men involved is described as wearing a red shirt with a shirt covering his face.

This is not the first time that Reflections has been the target of criminals; most recently the location near the airport was targeted by a robber using a modified flare gun.

After police left the scene today, local photographer Dennie Warren Jr was able to capture this picture of a bullet (right), which was overlooked by RCIPS SoC officers, on the shelves between the produce.

The CCTV footage has also now been released and can be viewed here on Cayman27.

Anyone who was in the area at the relevant time and witnessed the incident or the men running

off from the scene is asked to call GeorgeTown CID on 949-4222 or the confidential Crime

Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).

Deputy premier gets new car

Cayman News | 14/10/2010 | 152 Comments

(CNS): The Ministry of District Administration has purchased a new VIP car for Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor Connolly, CNS has learned. Both the Premier’s Office and the Protocol Office have denied involvement with the purchase of the new SUV, which has cost the public purse almost $46,000. The car (left) was bought by the ministry at a time when government departments are being asked to make deep cuts in operational expenses. Chief Officer Kearney Gomez admitted the Ford Expedition was purchased using money from the 2009/10 ministerial budget. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

Prior to this acquisition O’Connor-Connolly was assigned an official vehicle by the Protocol Office but Gomez said this vehicle had since been returned.

"It was considered appropriate to provide the deputy premier with a suitable vehicle which could facilitate transport for her and related ministry transport," Gomez told CNS but did not indicate what was wrong with the protocol car.

The senior civil servant defended the decision to go ahead with the purchase of the new vehicle without the apparent involvement or support of the premier or the Protocol Office. "For the record, it should be noted that all ministries and portfolios of government have their own budgets which does not necessitate having to seek Cabinet’s approval or the support of the premier," he said. "With only two protocol vehicles, the vehicle which was returned will now be available to provide back up for the premier as well as to accommodate visiting dignitaries," said Gomez as he confirmed the $45,730.00 cost of the new Ford.

With this purchase government now has five VIP cars, three on Grand Cayman, one on Cayman Brac and another on Little Cayman. The two protocol cars, registration POO1 and POO2, were being used by the premier and deputy premier respectively and both have police drivers and televisions and other upgrades. It is unclear if the new car will have a police driver as is the case with the POO1 and POO2

The decision to purchase the ministry car was made without the knowledge and support of the Protocol Office. "We are unaware of a third car being purchased for use by this office. This car has not been bought by us we know nothing about it," a spokesperson from the office said when CNS first learned about the arrival of the deputy premier’s new vehicle. McKeeva Bush has also denied contributing to this decision. "The premier was not involved with the purchase the vehicle in any way," the premier’s press secretary told CNS this week.

The protocol changes ushered in by the 2009 Cayman Islands Constitution have been blamed by the premier for the added benefits his and the deputy premier’s offices have both received. However, the premier has been criticised for the increase in benefits he has received since the new Constitution was implemented.

The full array of the benefits received by the premier, the deputy premier and other government ministers are currently the subject of a freedom of information inquiry by CNS.

The request for a breakdown of all set benefits and expense allowances (over and above MLA office allowance) for each Cabinet minister, such as clothing, travel, entertainment, accommodation, and communications, as well as additional expenses each minister has claimed since the last elections was sent to the Cabinet Office 11 August, which forwarded it to each individual ministry.

The Health Ministry responded well within the time allowed by the FOI law on the 30 August and the Education Ministry responded today (13 October), both saying that their ministers had not claimed any expenses. The other three ministries have yet to respond.

Man beaten with bull’s penis

Cayman News | 13/10/2010 | 115 Comments

(CNS): Police have confirmed this evening that they are investigating a report regarding an assault on a man which took place in Bodden Town Road last night at around 6.40pm. CNS understands from unconfirmed reports that the male assailant was a well known member of the Bodden Town business community whose weapon of choice appears to have been a dried cow cod (a bull’s penis). Police told CNS they were unable to offer further details on either the weapon or the identity of the man who allegedly committed the assault. A spokesperson said that no arrests have yet been made and enquiries into the incident were ongoing. Meanwhile, Bodden Town MLA Dwayne Seymour has been charged by police in connection with a fight at Cayman Beach Suites earlier this year.

Police confirmed that a 41-year-old man has been charged in connection with an incident which occurred at the Grand Cayman Beach Suites on Saturday 1 May 2010. “The man has been charged with attempting to obstruct, prevent, pervert or defeat the course of justice. It is anticipated he will appear in court on 9 November 2010,” a police spokesperson said.

At the time of the incident, Florida based personal trainer Garrone Yap claimed he was assaulted by Seymour and another man outside the hotel. All three men were arrested, but Yap was released without charge.

Check back to CNS later for more on both these stories.

Miller gets CCTV in district

Cayman News | 13/10/2010 | 27 Comments

(CNS): The independent MLA for North Side has made good on his campaign promise to install CCTV in his constituency. While the rest of the country continues to wait on government’s plans to install cameras island-wide, Ezzard Miller and his district council began raising money straight after the election to buy the security system themselves. Several cameras hooked up to remote monitoring equipment are now installed throughout North Side in strategic locations. The equipment stores the digital film for more than two weeks, which can be viewed from North Side and Bodden Town police stations. Law enforcement now has a 24/7 bird’s eye view of the district, which Miller hopes will deter crime.

Miller said yesterday, as he showed off the new equipment at the small police station in North Side, that the installation was down to the donations made by people in the district. He said, however, that he had encountered a number of bureaucratic difficulties along the way that almost derailed the project — not least a bill from the planning department of $400 for the inspection of each camera mounted on a CUC light pole.

“Here we were trying to do something for the good of the community and we came up against bureaucrats,” lamented Miller, the first and only MLA to directly take on the security of his constituents. He queried whether government would need to pay planning $400 for each camera it planned to mount on light poles once the government CCTV scheme began. Miller said the planning department refused to waive the fees as it insisted that each camera on each pole had to have an electrical inspection.

As a result he had to raise considerably more money from the community than first expected but his constituents were behind him in the project and so they wrote the cheques, he said. Miller also noted that CUC is charging $20 per month for each camera on one of its poles, but the only other costs will be the internet connection and Miller said if it reduces crime in the district it will be worth the money.

Linda Connolly, chair of the North Side Neighbourhood Watch Committee, said that the cameras were very welcome and sent a clear message. “This lets the criminals know that we mean business in North Side and we believe this will deter individuals from coming to our district to commit crime,” she added.

Deputy Chief Inspector Richard Harford of the RCIPS agreed that it should be a deterrent but also a very useful tool for the police in the issue of detection. “It is a real help to us to combat crime,” he said. “CCTV in private homes and business assist the police greatly and these cameras around the district will be very effective as the picture quality is very good.”

The sophisticated technology of the CCTV system produces top quality images from the cameras in both the day and night. They are clear enough to see detail and the technician was able to demonstrate that police will be able to zoom in on license plates and faces, helping them to ID individuals committing crime and the vehicles they have used.

Miller said the cameras were all placed at locations across the district selected by the police and were not pointing at peoples homes or invading privacy. He said their placement had been decided by the RCIPS in order to assist them in their ability to apprehend the criminals. However, Miller said, the network could easily be extended and any home owners association that wanted to purchase more cameras for their property those could be added to the district monitoring system, he explained.

Keen to ensure that he helps to tackle the rising crime in his once peaceful district, Miller said he has been waiting for thirty years to get the level of policing he would want to see in his constituency, hence the decision to take the problem on directly.

“It’s not a silver bullet,” the independent MLA said, “but we think it will help.”

Murder suspect charged with West Bay shooting

Cayman News | 12/10/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): Updated 8:30pm – The 39-year-old man charged in connection with the murder of Tyrone Burrell appeared in court today and was remanded in custody to Northward Prison. Leonard Ebanks is charged with murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm over the fatal shooting of the 20-year-old Burrell in Birch Tree Hill, West Bay, on Wednesday, 8 September. Burrell was killed during a social function in the same yard in which Damion Ming was also shot and killed in March. Police revealed in the wake of Burrell’s murder that, although he was not a police witness, officers believed he had information in connection with an on going police investigation. (Photo courtesy of Cayman27)

Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden said recently that Burrell’s murder demonstrated that silence was no guarantee of safety and things could have been different if the young man had spoken out about what he knew.

Ebanks is also due to stand trial in the Grand Court in February next year in connection with rape charges. The 39-year-old West Bayer is accused of attacking and assaulting a 31-year-old man on Joseph Drive in West Bay in January.

Law fundamentally “flawed”

Cayman News | 12/10/2010 | 48 Comments

(CNS): A twelve page memo to government from the Financial Services Legislative Committee reveals that because the necessary experts were not consulted before government passed the Dormant Accounts Law 2010 it has potentially dangerous consequences for the financial services industry. The legislative sub-committee, which was asked to review the bill — a month after its passage into law — said that unless it was changed it would have “a serious and irreversible adverse impact" on what was revealed to be a long list of key financial service industries, from investment funds to private wealth management services. The committee has now submitted a complete re-write of the law, which they say could still enable government to access truly, dormant accounts without damaging the financial sector.

“It is our view that the law as currently drafted is fundamentally flawed, unworkable and would cause irreparable damage to certain investment fund and capital market transactions,” the legislative committee said in the memo about the law, which was enacted this summer and is currently in place.

The financial experts warned that unless it was changed soon it had the “very real potential for current and future clients to elect to conduct their business in jurisdictions other than the Cayman Islands.”

The flawed law, which was passed in the Legislative Assembly in July, gives government legal access to dormant accounts after some six years of inactivity and was expected to raise as much as $10 milllion for the public purse.

Since its passage, however, concerns have been mounting about the implications of the legislation, for which it now appears there was little or no consultation with experts in the industry. Banks are already advertising details of hundreds of accounts that could be considered to be dormant under the law. The new legislation requires financial institutions to begin the process of turning over abandoned property to government otherwise those institutions could face criminal penalties.

Despite claims in the parliament by the premier that consultation had taken place on the law, it appears that the Financial Services Legislative Committee had not been involved in the drafting of the law and were not shown the legislation until after it was passed. The law was brought to the Legislative Assembly and passed without any public consultation as it was not given the 21 days reading period under Standing Orders because government voted to suspend that requirement.

Although the goal of the law was to enable government to seize abandoned cash and valuables, the subcommittee said it had swept up numerous other long term investment vehicles and instruments in the way it was drafted.

In the memo members of the subcommittee recommended that government change the law to apply only to bank licences where the assets are physically held in the Cayman Islands. The experts pointed out that, at present, the law could cause a “massive adverse reaction from Class B licensees if funds held in dormant accounts in the Cayman subsidiary or branch would be susceptible to payment over to the Cayman Islands Government.”

The law, as a result of “ambiguous drafting”, appears to catch a wide range of financial products that are not at all dormant, the memo said. The experts added that because terms were poorly defined in section 4 of the law the “scope is almost boundless”, and they warned of the real danger of scaring away clients from Cayman.

“It could cover any type of asset or property held by a financial institution … the logistics of monitoring such assets for the purposes of dormancy are inconceivable,” the memo states.

Among the many criticisms the subcommittee has of the law, it also notes that in most other jurisdictions the period of dormancy is around 15 years and recommend that the current six years in the law also be changed to 12 years. The memo further notes that the law in its present form is in conflict with the Bill of Rights, which will be enacted in 2012 and which government is now obligated to consider when passing all new legislation.

The experts also question why the law requires the publication of names and account details of dormant account holders. “This would be a great cause of consternation for most banks and trust companies involved in private wealth management and would be a deterrent to any clients of the licensees wanting to have their affairs managed through the Cayman Islands,” the memo revealed.

Although the subcommittee submitted its redraft of the legislation to the Ministry of Finance on 24 August, the government did not bring the changes to the LA during the most recent September sitting. It is still unclear if the government will bring the changes in the next meeting, expected to take place in November, or how much of the subcommittee’s redrafting the ministry will include in any future changes.

Paula reaches hurricane status near Cozumel

Cayman News | 12/10/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): Although the ninth hurricane of the Atlantic Hurricane Seasons poses no immediate threat to the Cayman Islands hurricane Paula will be bringing heavy rain to the area forecasters say. At 8am local time Paula was located about 276 miles south west of Grand Cayman with winds at the centre already at 75mph with higher gusts. The hurricane is moving at around 10mph the NHC said. Forecasters say a turn toward the north-northwest and north is expected later today. On the forecast track the centre of Paula will approach the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula tonight. A category one hurricane, Paula is set to increase in strength a little over the next two days.

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 10 miles from the centre and storm force up to 60 miles. Paula is expected to produce heavy rain, flooding storm surge and high waves in the warning areas.

Hazard management said yesterday that the Cayman Islands national weather service will continue to monitor the storm and its predicted path which has the storm curving back around from Mexico towards Cuba over the next five days.

Go to NHC

Go to local weather

Martinez refused bail

Cayman News | 11/10/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): William McLaughlin Martinez will be staying in jail as he awaits his murder retrial on 17 January of next year. The man whose conviction for the killing of Brian Rankine Carter was overturned by the Court of Appeal this summer was refused bail by Justice Smith on Monday morning. Despite arguments from his attorney that the case against Martinez had been weakened as a result of the of appeal court’s decision, the judge said he believed Martinez would fail to appear for that trial if granted bail. Nicholas Dixie, counsel for the defence, had argued that the crown’s main witness in the case had been discredited, but the judge told the court he believed the crown had a strong case.

The judge stated that the crown’s case was cogent, and while Dixie claimed the witness was discredited, there was strong evidence in the case and Martinez faced a life sentence if found guilty. “It would seem, therefore, that the applicant would have a strong incentive to be absent,” the judge stated as he denied the bail application.

Although it is normal practice in the Cayman Islands that people charged with murder are not bailed, Dixie had pointed out in his arguments during the bail application that this ran contrary to the presumption of innocence. The defence attorney had told the court on Friday that the reasons behind the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the murder conviction had undermined the crown’s key witness, Jason Hinds, and that his client had no previous convictions.

Dixie argued that the murder case against his client was one that boiled down to two people — one who was a murderer and one who was a coward — and it was apparent that the jury in the original trial did not necessarily believe that it was Hinds who was the coward and his client the murderer. The case against his client, Dixie claimed, was far weaker since the conviction was quashed nor was there any certainty that Hinds would even be at the trial, and he asked the court to remember that everyone had theright to bail whatever the crime.

Hinds, the prosecution witness who was convicted of accessory after the fact in the case, was released from Northward Prison and deported to Jamaica just before Martinez’ conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Crown counsel Tanya Lobben said on Friday that Hinds would be returning to the jurisdiction for the retrial but because he had been deported there was a process that needed to be followed in order for him to legally return to the Cayman Islands to give evidence.

She had asked the court not to offer bail to the defendant as she said a jury had already convicted him once and there was strong evidence against him. She said the misdirection by the judge did not undermine the strength of the crown’s case against Martinez.

The crown alleges that Brain Rankine Carter was murdered by Martinez in an extremely violent attack after a drug deal went wrong. The murderer almost severed the head of the young man whose naked body was found in a parking lot in McField Square in 16 May 2008. Forensic experts during the trial revealed that there were more than 48 injuries to the victim’s body which had been administered with a machete and something akin to an ice-pick.