Foreign couple in custody on ammunition charges

Stephen Clarke-Gray, 58 and Renata Clarke-Gray, 33 head to court in POS

A Port of Spain magistrate on Friday denied bail to a South African man and his Brazilian wife and remanded them in custody until their hearings resumes on Monday.

The couple  – Stephen Clarke-Gray, 58 and Renata Clarke-Gray, 33, - are charged with illegally possessing 74 rounds of assorted ammunition, a .44 Remmington firearm, a miniature cannon, 194 musket balls and 940 grammes of gun powder.

Officers of the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Bureau (OCNFB), Marine Interdiction Unit (MIU) and Customs and Excise Division arrested the couple on their yacht on Thursday at Scotland Bay, Chaguaramas.

Clarke-Gray is also facing charges of making a false declaration to Customs officials and the illegal importation of the items into this country on November 16, last year.

The couple's attorney John Heath appealed to the magistrate to grant bail and assured the court that the couple would not leave the country. However, the prosecutor objected to bail, pointing out that the authorities had not completed criminal background tracing to determine if the couple had no criminal convictions as claimed by their lawyer