Vigil was followed shortly after by one of Panday’s defence attorneys, Desmond Allum, SC, who also appeared surprised by the “harsh” sentence, telling reporters that an application for bail would be made to a Judge in Chambers.

By this time, the faces of Panday’s supporters were registering total disbelief that their leader was sentenced to two years’ hard labour.

Outside the court became a beehive of activity as reporters and supporters jostled to get comments from UNC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Tim Gopeesingh, UNC MPs Subhas Panday (Panday’s brother), Dr. Roodal Moonilal, UNC Deputy Political Leaders Wade Mark and Jack Warner, who all refused to say anything about the sentence.

Heavily armed police officers were on hand to prevent any outbursts from members of the public.

Shock was written on all their faces and some seemed confused as to what they could do to try and stop Panday from spending the night in jail.

It was indeed a sad day in the history of politics -- not only in Trinidad and Tobago but the entire English-speaking Caribbean -- for a sitting Member of Parliament (an Opposition Leader) to be jailed on an integrity issue.

Chief Magistrate McNicolls, in his verdict, said he did not believe Panday or his main witness, billionaire businessman Lawrence Duprey.

The magistrate said he inferred from the facts that Panday was not speaking the truth when he said he did not consider the monies (totalling $1.5 million) in the account to be his and his reason for not disclosing it.

Indeed, by his own admission, Panday accepted that the money was for his family and Panday’s own witness (Dr. Rampersad Parsaram) confirmed that even though the wife took care of the money it was the family wealth, McNicolls noted.

The magistrate said he also inferred from the facts that the continued use of Mrs. Panday’s maiden name and her parents’ address in Marabella, where the bank statements were sent, was a deliberate attempt to conceal the account.

On Duprey’s evidence, McNicolls said if he (Duprey) was speaking the truth that it was financial assistance, which adds up to a gift, then it was all the more reason why the defendant would want to deliberately withhold disclosing the account because it was given by a large businessman to the Prime Minister’s family and there were consequences that would flow from such a transaction.

Panday, in his defence, said the money in the account was given to his wife as scholarships for the children.

Legal sources told TnT Mirror the evidence of the two witnesses Panday called to support his case backfired.

Panday, who was asked to bow out in grace after his party’s defeat in the last general election, will apparently be leaving the political arena in disgrace.