Director of Public Prosecutions- Paula LLewelyn
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has responded to criticism over the decision not to conduct the prosecution of the directors of Symbiote Investments, trading as Caricel.
The DPP is insisting that there was not enough evidence available to make that prosecution.
The criticism arose in a Gleaner article this week, in which it was implied that proof was available to show that Caricel was illegally operating on the spectrum in 2015 before it obtained a spectrum licence.
However, the DPP, in a statement, asserted that the offence being probed was under Section 63 of the Telecommunications Act, and this requires a very high standard of proof. The DPP further advised that the evidence collected by the police showed that there was unauthorised use of the frequency in January 2016.
However, Caricel told the Spectrum Management Authority that it was conducting testing, and also sought its guidance on the way forward in testing its equipment. In addition, the company does not own any cell site and the towers used were shared with other operators in the broadcasting and telecommunications industry.
According to the statement, the police did not seize and test the equipment believed to be used for the offence, so they could not exclude other operators who were using the same spectrum.
The Office of the DPP therefore concluded that the prosecution would have been compromised with these gaps in evidence, so it decided not to proceed.
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