Suspended sentence, $400k fine for former employee in labour ministry fraud
Published:Friday | August 23, 2024 | 12:05 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
A former Ministry of Labour and Social Security employee, who swindled a little over $800,000 from one of the ministry’s social programmes, used it to fund tertiary education for herself and her son and then tried to get her tuition refunded, was in tears this week as she was slapped with a $400,000 fine and a one-year suspended sentence.
The 37-year-old accounting clerk, Alvira Campbell, who had earned herself a first-class honours business degree with the stolen funds, had however reimbursed the Government $807,000 after pleading guilty in June during her trial in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.
Senior Parish Judge Maxine Ellis, in handing down the sentence, ordered Campbell to pay $100,000 each or serve 12 months on four counts of larceny as a servant.
She was also sentenced to one year suspended for 24 months on seven counts of money laundering.
Ellis, while acknowledging that Campbell had used the fund to further her education and had done well, however chided her for seeking to rob the Government a second time when she applied for a refund of her tuition.
“You already get the benefit, you get yuh education, you paper, you kid went to Mico, jus’ chill out, but yuh gaan ask fi refund. That, to me, I find you did not just want an education, you are a thief.
“They paid for it, you enjoyed it and you want them to give it back. What is that,” Ellis said. “You went above and beyond. That is not desperation.”
The prosecutor, in outlining the facts in the case, shared that Campbell used her position to manipulate the system and defrauded funds from the entity between January 2014 and November 2017.
The court heard that Campbell had targeted the Education and Social Intervention Grant which was available to assist needy applicants with school expenses and tuition.
Campbell had caused cheques to be paid out to the university where she was studying as well as to the teacher’s college where her son was doing his studies.
Cheques were also disbursed to Campbell, her family members and others under the guise that they were beneficiaries of the programme.
Two of Campbell’s classmates, whose names were used on the cheques, gave evidence that they never received the benefit and had never applied.
Applied for tuition refund
The offender had also applied for a refund of her tuition from the ministry on completion of her degree as it is policy for the Government to refund employees for studies pursued during their tenure.
However, it was during that process that it was discovered that there was a questionable transaction on one of the programmes and Campbell’s accounts at the university.
An audit was done and it was discovered that she had fraudulently used funds from the programme to cover her tuition, even though the cheques were made out to third-party individuals who were either Campbell’s family members or classmates.
The court heard that Campbell was eligible to benefit from the programme but would first have to be given permission but that she never applied.
Before the sentence was passed, attorney-at-law C. J. Mitchell urged the judge not to impose a custodial sentence and asked the judge to bear in mind that his client had paid back the money and that she never squandered the funds.
Mitchell submitted that his client never used the money to party and “wine and dine” but that she used it to further her education.
He also urged the court to view the restitution and indication of his client’s remorse for her unlawful action while adding that the court take into account that it was her first offence.
The judge, in arriving at the sentence, said while she agreed that white-collar criminals are persons who have gone to university, she had to balance the scale of justice.
Hence she said she had to take into account that this is Campbell’s first offence and that she had made restitution.
Ellis however noted that if it was up to her she would sentence her to work for the government for just a stipend. But she said it not up to her and Campbell contributes to society and also to the country’s tax system.
The judge in passing down the sentence said a strong message must be sent to government workers that taxpayers/ money is not just there for them to steal.