Fraud trial against former Petrojam execs postponed
Published:Tuesday | November 22, 2022 | 7:15 PM
The fraud trial involving two former Petrojam executives was on Tuesday postponed in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.
The trial, which resumed on Monday after a six-month break, was forced to a halt after the prosecutor, King's Counsel Caroline Hay, fell ill.
Hay is prosecuting the matter on a fiat from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
It is not clear whether the case will proceed on Wednesday.
Dr Perceval Singh, the state refinery's former chairman, and former General Manager Floyd Grindley are being tried on several fraud-related charges stemming from allegations that Singh had submitted claims amounting to US$73,620 between December 2016 and May 2018 for overseas travel he did not do.
It is alleged that Singh submitted claims for travel to Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Grindley is accused of aiding and abetting the ex-chairman in the process used to make the claims.
The company's chief financial officer, Delroy Brown, who started his evidence-in-chief on Monday, was expected to continue Tuesday.
He testified on Monday that he had observed irregularities on two separate occasions with at least six donation requests submitted to him for payment between November 2016 and May 2017.
In the first instance, Brown shared that the requests came to him without the board's approval and, when they were resubmitted, the payees' names on the cheques did not match those in the resolution. Consequently, the executive said, he cancelled those cheques and prepared new ones with the correct names.
He also told the court that Grindley had asked him to make payments to the contractors for some of the charity projects, but that he refused as this would have breached board policy as the contractors were not the authorised payees.
- Tanesha Mundle
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