The Court of Ap­peal has thrown out a le­gal chal­lenge by for­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment of­fi­cer Tim­o­thy Mal­oney, rul­ing against his claim that the De­fence Force un­fair­ly blocked his pro­mo­tion be­fore re­tire­ment.

Mal­oney ar­gued his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were breached af­ter he was de­nied ad­vance­ment from Sergeant to Staff Sergeant de­spite as­sur­ances and be­ing in­clud­ed in a pro­mo­tion cer­e­mo­ny line-up. But the court found he was fac­ing ac­tive dis­ci­pli­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tions at the time and was there­fore not in good stand­ing.

Judges al­so point­ed to his ac­cep­tance of sanc­tions linked to al­le­ga­tions in­volv­ing al­tered payslips and false job let­ters, dis­miss­ing claims of un­fair treat­ment and or­der­ing him to pay the State’s le­gal costs.