Petrojam Fraud Trial | More complaints of unfairness from defence lawyers

Defence lawyers in the Petrojam fraud trial have again accused the prosecution of unfairness and this morning sought the judge's intervention.

They took issue that a witness had submitted a further statement after reading reports about the trial in The Gleaner newspaper. 

The statement in question was tendered into evidence last Thursday and disclosed to the defence on Friday.

When the trial resumed in the Kingston  and St Andrew Parish Court this morning, attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, while objecting to the tendering of a handbook into evidence, highlighted that the witness, Tamara Lewis, Petrojam's legal officer and company secretary, had documented in her recently submitted statement that, after reading the newspaper report on the trial, went in search of emails including some that she had sent to his client Dr Perceval Bahado-Singh and did a further statement to close gaps in the prosecution's case.

"When I read it I couldn't believe it but I had to compose myself," he said while noting that the witness is a lawyer and should know better.

Samuels, while noting that there was no mention of the emails in her previous statement, said the witness' “bold-faced” action brings into question the ethics of the profession.

Further, he argued that it is a serious breach, which has resulted in a compromise of a fair trial and must be frowned upon by the court

Queen's Counsel KD Knight in supporting his colleague's submission said, "This is an egregious wrong.

"What we have is a situation where a witness has behaved unfairly and the prosecution has adopted the unfairness," he argued.

Knight, while describing the situation as distressing, noted that the defence has already complained about unfairness.

But, Parish Judge Maxine Ellis, who opined that the application was premature, advised the defence that she would not be ruling on whether there was any unfairness or if there was a departure from the principles.

Instead, she told the defence lawyers that based on their application, which was in relation to the tendering of the exhibit, there was no objection raised in law to the tendering of the material and as such the matter should proceed with the witness' evidence.

However, she told the lawyers that they could renew their submissions in relation to their complaint about unfairness after the witness has completed her evidence.

The judge was of the view that she should not be hearing what was in the statement as the material was not yet before the court and that the lawyers would have an opportunity to press the witness during cross-examination.

Bahado-Singh and then general manager Floyd Grindley are being tried in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on several fraud-related charges stemming from allegations that Bahado-Singh had submitted claims amounting to US$73,620 between December 2016 and May 2018 for overseas travel he did not make.

Grindley is alleged to have aided and abetted the ex-chairman in the process used to make the fraudulent claims.

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