Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson remanded a Nandy Park man charged with stealing over 1M when he on Monday appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
Christopher Menezes, 33 of 79 Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara pleaded not guilty to the charge of simple larceny. It is alleged that between September 26 and November 9, Menezes stole over $1.1M from Senior Customs Officer Yonette Heyliger.
Menezes lawyer, James Bond, applied for bail on the grounds that his client was no flight risk. However, Prosecutor Denise Griffith objected to bail on the grounds that Menezes has a matter pending in the High Court where he was also accused of stealing Heyliger’s car. She noted that the police had had a difficult time apprehending Menezes.
In response, Bond said the case in the High Court was recently filed and had nothing to do with the current case. He said that he had spoken to the police about allowing Menezes to be with his family until they migrated to the US and then he would turn himself in but that they had arrested him. He said his client does not know whether his wife and children have left the country.
“The police is at present carrying out an investigation, should the police wait until it is convenient for the defendant to go to the station?” Griffith asked. She said that it was not fair to Heyliger or the investigating officers to wait for Menezes to complete his business before focusing on the case. Griffith said too “he [Menezes] wanted to frame her” since he had placed a gun in Heyliger’s wardrobe. Heyliger told the court, “He tell me that he find me money that I dey hide when he dey going foh hide he gun.”
Bond then submitted that because of the case at the High Court Menezes’s passport was seized and is currently in police custody so he could not leave the jurisdiction.
He then said that the case was about an alleged larceny of $1.1M which was a bailable offence.
However, Heyliger’s lawyer Nigel Hughes said Menezes had found the money his client had put away while he was attempting to hide a gun.
He said Menezes then allegedly called Heyliger to tell her that he had found the money and that he later deposited it into a Republic Bank account. He then allegedly promised the woman that he would return the money.
Hughes noted that soon after Menezes disappeared with Heyliger’s car and that he was later located in Berbice with his wife and children even though he had represented himself to Heyliger as a single person. “He was apprehended as a result of a vehicle chase with the marshals that were going to hand him his court order,” Hughes said. He added that a criminal report of the theft of the vehicle was made to the police and that Menezes had hidden Heyliger’s vehicle and that he fears that it is being stripped of its parts and repainted.
Hughes had also told the court that Menezes may be leaving the country permanently in January since, from information gathered, he may be expecting his travel documents very soon.
Menezes was ordered to return to court on January 13.
