Businessman and former PUP City Councilor Darrell Carter says he was a “victim of circumstances” when court marshals arrested him on Thursday evening over Social Security contributions due to the Social Security Board.
Speaking candidly with Amandala this morning at his upholstery and furniture business, Carter’s Custom Upholstery at the corner of Elston Kerr Street and Cemetery Road, Carter quoted an old Chinese proverb that states, “May you live in interesting times.”
According to Carter, he was blindsided by the Thursday arrest after having appeared in Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, October 20, and being told by Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie, holding over for Revenue Magistrate Ed Usher, who is on vacation, that there were no pending matters between him and the Board.
On Thursday, marshals “under instruction” from SSB, hauled Carter to the Queen Street police station and then to Kolbe Foundation Prison upon the execution of a committal warrant issued by the Magistrate’s Court on behalf of the Board.
The warrants were for two periods of six weeks each, meaning Carter would have spent three months in jail if he were unable to pay then and there.
Carter owed a total of $3,515.39 from a judgment issued in 2007: $2,487.29 in one instance and $1,028.10 in another. He had paid a total of $2,500 toward both judgments in September, and up to his jail stint was in negotiation with the Board to pay the remainder.
An employee at the Social Security Board we spoke to on Friday afternoon declined comment.
According to Carter, the Board appears to be tightening up on smaller business enterprises on the matter of contributions, while letting larger organizations slide.
Carter alleged that the Belize City Council owes $70,000 to SSB; the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), $40,000 to SSB. Meanwhile, owners of small businesses (he mentioned the Bismark Night Club on Queen Charlotte Street and Body 2000 Gym on Coney Drive) are being hauled in for lesser amounts, even in these “haad times.”
Carter’s wife, Family Court Magistrate Natalia Carter, came up with the remainder of the money by noon Friday, and Carter left Kolbe a free man on Friday evening.
Today, he told us that SSB, and by extension “evil forces” arrayed against him, will “do what they have to do. But the forces of good will always overcome.”