Magistrate Hazel Octave Hamilton was yesterday forced to give a new trial date to Fred Sukhdeo, who allegedly attempted to pursue a bogus US$2M insurance claim following the fire at Sacred Heart Church, two years ago, after his lawyer failed to turn up to court.
This was done at a time when the prosecution was finally prepared to start its case against Sukhdeo. Three witnesses were present yesterday to give evidence.
Stabroek News was told this one of Sukhdeo’s lawyers Winston Murray had sent a letter to the court to excuse his absence. The other lawyer Sanjeev Datadin was to have appeared in court yesterday but he never showed even as Sukhdeo said that that was what he was told.
Since last year, the commencement of the trial has been put off for several reasons.
The magistrate yesterday set the new trial date for June 8.
It is alleged that on December 29, 2004, Sukhdeo with intent to defraud forged a certain document purporting to be a GuyFlag fire and perils claim for US$2M ($400M) for the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church.
He is also accused of trying to obtain the said sum of money be virtue of a forged fire and perils claim form.
According to the facts of the case, GuyFlag submitted a bogus claim for payment to its reinsurance agent AON Re and Sukhdeo, who was the head of the sister operation, the National Cooperative Credit Union LTD (NCCL) had been presented as a representative of the Catholic Church dealing with the fire.
It was when GuyFlag/Sukhdeo allegedly approached a claims adjuster here that the alleged scam was discovered.
Investigations were carried out and it was discovered that the church had no policy with GuyFlag.
Sukhdeo was at arrested on November 17, 2005 and placed on $50,000 station bail.
He was charged in March the following year with forgery and endeavouring to obtain upon a forged document and made an appearance in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on March 21. He was released on $75,000 bail on that occasion.
Several months after that a trial date was set but it was continuously put down.
