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The Court of Appeal has granted conditional leave to a chef convicted in 2010 of drug trafficking, to appeal to the Privy Council on order to try and overturn a ruling which saw his compensation for unlawful detention reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Colin Simmons was permitted by Justices of Appeal Peter Rajkumar, Maria Wilson and Geoffrey Henderson to proceed with his challenge of the Appeal Court reversing aspects of a 2021 High Court award of $980,000 in damages to him for breach of constitutional rights and deprivation of liberty.

Mohammed ruled that the state failed to facilitate Simmons’ right to appeal his conviction while imprisoned, causing him to serve three and a half years behind bars before his conviction was quashed.