Former Minister Johnston Fernando has indicated to the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, through his lawyers, that he will plead guilty to three counts under the Motor Traffic Act relating to an unregistered luxury vehicle. The magistrate set 11 November. Hours later, Fernando issued a statement denying that he had been charged with — or had admitted to — vehicle import tax fraud.
Correction, 28 October: an earlier version of this article stated in its headline and opening paragraph that the former minister had admitted guilt over a vehicle “brought into the country without payment of import taxes.” That characterisation followed the Daily Mirror’s initial filing. Fernando has since stated that no charge was filed against him over the vehicle’s importation, ownership or import duties, and that the Fort case comprises three Motor Traffic Act counts only. The headline and lede have been rewritten; his denial is set out in full below. The charge list in the body, which this desk took from NewsFirst, is unchanged and is consistent with his account.
The plea was conveyed on Wednesday, the Daily Mirror reported at 2.18 p.m. Colombo time and NewsFirst reported at 3.21 p.m.
Both accounts are explicit that the position was conveyed through his lawyers rather than entered by the former minister in person.
The vehicle
The case concerns a BMW found parked at the car park of a star-class hotel in Colombo, NewsFirst reports. Investigators alleged the vehicle was unregistered and fitted with forged number plates, and that the taxes due on it had not been paid.
The Daily Mirror describes the same vehicle as having been found abandoned at a private hotel in Colombo. The two descriptions are compatible — a car left in a hotel car park and never reclaimed — and neither outlet contradicts the other on any checkable point.
The charges
NewsFirst sets out what the prosecution filed, which the Daily Mirror does not. The charges were brought under the Motor Traffic Act and cover three things:
- failure to register the vehicle
- use of fraudulent registration number plates
- evasion of taxes
What happens on 11 November
After considering the submissions, Colombo Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena ordered the case called on 11 November for sentencing.
The distinction matters for how this is read. Because the former minister has indicated a guilty plea, the November date is not a verdict hearing — there is no remaining question of guilt for the court to determine. It is a sentencing date. Ada Derana’s headline on the same proceedings described a “verdict due on Nov. 11”; NewsFirst’s account, which this report follows, states the case was called for sentencing.
The same magistrate, sitting at Fort on the same day, further remanded Sugeeshwara Bandara until 11 November in an unrelated case.
Update — Fernando denies any import-tax charge
At 9.07 p.m. Colombo time on Wednesday, some ten hours after this report was first published, the Daily Mirror carried a media statement in which Fernando rejected reports that he had been charged with vehicle import tax fraud or had pleaded guilty to such an offence.
His position, as reported, is that:
- the case taken up at Fort on 28 October involved three charges under the Motor Traffic Act and nothing more
- no charge was filed against him over the vehicle’s importation into Sri Lanka, its ownership, or non-payment of import duties
- he is not the owner of the vehicle
- a separate case has been filed in the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court, under the Motor Traffic Act, against the individual who had possession of the vehicle
- pleading guilty to a charge concerning the possession of a motor vehicle is legally distinct from admitting import tax fraud, which he says he was never charged with
He described reports that he had admitted guilt to vehicle import tax fraud as inaccurate and misleading.
How this squares with the filings. The denial is narrower than it first appears, and it is largely consistent with the charge list above. NewsFirst reported the three counts as non-registration, fraudulent number plates and evasion of taxes — all brought under the Motor Traffic Act. Tax evasion under that Act is a different offence from customs fraud on an imported vehicle, and Fernando is disputing the second, not the first. What he contests is the characterisation of the plea, not that a plea was indicated.
The Daily Mirror’s own earlier filing is the clearest source of that characterisation: it reported him as intending to plead guilty to charges “relating to the possession of an unregistered luxury vehicle without paying the applicable import taxes and committing tax fraud.” Fernando’s statement does not accuse any outlet by name.
Two points in his account are new and uncorroborated at this hour: that he is not the vehicle’s owner, and that a separate Gampaha case is proceeding against whoever had possession of it. Neither appeared in the morning’s filings, and no second newsroom had carried the denial when this update was written.
Context
Johnston Fernando, a former Trade Minister and SLPP parliamentarian, is facing several separate proceedings. This desk has recorded his arrest by the Bribery Commission over the Polgolla chairs procurement and his release on bail in that matter in September, an Appeal Court matter concerning the CWE in August, and the remanding of his secretary in the Sathosa case this month. The luxury vehicle case is distinct from all of them.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the value of the vehicle, the amount of tax alleged to be unpaid, the BMW’s model or year, or when it was found at the hotel. Neither says when the case was first filed, which agency conducted the investigation, or who the complainant is.
Neither reports whether the former minister was present in court, what sentence the prosecution will seek, or what penalties the three Motor Traffic Act counts carry. Neither says what becomes of the vehicle itself.
Fernando’s statement does not give the number of the Gampaha case, name the person said to have had possession of the vehicle, or explain how it came to be parked at the hotel.
Corroborated — two verified newsrooms. NewsFirst carries the charges, the magistrate’s name, the November date and the BMW identification; the Daily Mirror carries the abandonment detail and, in a later filing, the denial. Ada Derana also filed, as news ID 250712, but its site has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for 48 consecutive days and it could not be dated or cited. Hiru News had not filed on either the plea or the denial when this update was written.
