By ANDRE BAGOO Friday, October 30 2009

TWO CHINESE nationals, said to be employed with the Shanghai Construction Group, yesterday appeared in court on a charge of conspiring to defraud the Licensing Office by having one of them pretend to be the other in order to pass an examination.

Ruitong Lian, who lists his address as 5 Keate Street, Port-of-Spain, and Bin Gong, of Goodwood Heights Diego Martin, appeared before Magistrate Melville Daniel in the Port-of-Spain Seventh Court.

Both were charged with conspiring to defraud the Ministry of Works and Transport’s Licensing Office Department.

The two men were arrested on Wednesday last. In court yesterday, they were aided by a Chinese translator named Carol Tian, who is based at 86 Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain.

It is alleged that sometime during the period October 21 to 28, the two men conspired together to defraud the Ministry of Works and Transport and the Licensing Office “by falsely pretending that Bin Gong was Ruitong Lian.”

According to the charge, Lian is the holder of a provisional Trinidad and Tobago driver’s permit and the scheme was to have Bin Gong pretend to be Lian to write the Licensing Department’s regulatory exam for class three (light) motor vehicles. The exam was held on October 28 at Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

Yesterday both men stood quietly in the prisoners’ dock, with Gong wearing a black suit and Lian in white shirt and grey jeans. The men were not called to enter a plea, as the charge was laid indictably.

The police prosecutor present asked that the matter be adjourned to a later date in order to allow the State an opportunity to disclose documents to the men’s attorney. Daniel adjourned the matter to December 14 for mention in order to fix a date for the proceedings to begin, subject to the issue of disclosure being settled.