After intimidating and threatening a taxi driver in the capital to rob him of the sum of Rs 4,000 in La Vallée, Sainte Croix, Cledy Malbrook, a notorious repeat offender aged 22, was apprehended this Saturday morning, 13 April, at the cascade edge bus stop in Henrietta. He was apprehended by members of the public before being handed over to the police. The video of this scene of violence against the taxi driver, which went viral on social networks, provoked a feeling of revolt against the assailant.
Cledy Malbrook, who lives in Cité La Cure and has a record as a notorious repeat offender with Abercrombie police station, Sainte thought he would be able to hide out quietly in the Henrietta area when he was spotted on Saturday 13 April by a group of local residents. They all accused him of terrorising the taxi driver with a knife to steal his daily takings. While some of these people were tense with him, others wanted to give him a good thrashing before the Vacoas police arrived to collect him before handing him over to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Metropolitan Police’s Northern Division.
Cledy Malbrook was questioned by Inspector Ashvin Lullith of the CID and soon confessed. He said he had spent the money on drugs, among other things. He was later identified by the taxi driver as his assailant. The taxi driver, he said in his statement, had accosted him on the Port-Louis motorway at his base of operations near Shibani Finance on Thursday afternoon, 11 April, on his way to Terre Rouge. They both agreed on the sum of Rs 400. However, on the way, Cledy Malbrook asked him to take her to Sainte Croix, more precisely to Morcellement La Vallée. The intimidating conversation quickly turned into a threat, and Cledy Malbrook pulled a long knife from his rucksack to force the 43-year-old driver from the Cassis area to hand over all his money, representing his takings for the day.
At no point did the suspect suspect that he had been filmed by a camera in the car. The video was shared on social networks and went viral. Many people commented on it, condemning the act of the man who took no pity on the family man during his working hours and robbed him of his daily takings.
