Expat cop picking on me, Gumbs tells court

Carlos Gumbs who is facing a burglary charge has accused an expat cop of picking on him only because of his criminal history.

Gumbs claimed that he is hurt that he was being victimized by the officer, especially considering that the said cop is not a British Virgin Islander.

“You know how it feel when someone trying to destroy your life when they ain’t from here? You don’t know how it feel?” Gumbs told Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards when he appeared before her this month.

He made the claim when the cop in question attended court to testify against him in relation to a 2013 burglary committed at a residence in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola.

The officer however noted, in his testimony, that he had nothing personal against Gumbs.

Gumbs, who maintains that he is innocent, opted not to give any kind of evidence in his own defence.

Magistrate Richards will deliver a verdict on March 8.

Teen witness

When the matter was brought up in court on a previous occasion, a 16-year-old occupant of the residence that Gumbs allegedly burglarized testified that she was in her bedroom when she heard a sound coming from the kitchen area on August 31, 2013.

She also heard a loud bang, which sounded as though someone had ‘kicked down the door’.

The teenager further said she peeked through her bedroom window to investigate, adding that she saw Gumbs and an accomplice allegedly running from the scene.

She said she did not see Gumbs’ face, but she recognised the back of his head.

The witness said she was familiar with Gumbs because he visited the residence several times before the crime was committed.

The court also heard that Gumbs is related to the people whose house he allegedly burgled.

Gumbs, in the meantime, is already serving a two-year prison sentence for taking an unlicensed firearm onto the compound of the Magistrate’s Court at Prospect Reef last year.