Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday placed an employee of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on bail in the sum of $1 million when he appeared before her at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court charged with embezzling over $6 million.
Thirty-year-old Garfield Pearson of Lot 3702 Buttercup Place, South Ruimveldt Park was not required to enter pleas to four indictable charges of embezzlement.
It is alleged that between October 21 and 22, at the GRA, Main Street, being employed as a clerk he fraudulently embezzled over $6 million taken into his possession or in his name on behalf of GRA.
His lawyer Ronald Burch-Smith had applied for bail for him on the grounds that he is a first year Computer Science student at the University of Guyana and that he is an expectant father.
He said his client is a Systems Engineer at GRA and had been employed there since 1997 in the Information Technology department.
He said that on November 5, a Criminal Investigation Department officer met and informed his client that he was being charged with the offences.
Prosecutor Stephen Telford stated that another person, Gregory Barnes, had fled the jurisdiction while the police were investigating the matter.
Burch-Smith stated that the police had based the matter on the friendship that Pearson and Barnes shared, and added that his client should not have to face the consequences for an offence committed by another because he had some sort of affiliation with that person.
He noted that his client worked at the GRA Charlotte Street branch while Barnes worked at the Main Street branch and that over 100 persons had access to the main computer system in the company.
He also noted that though these charges are an embarrassment to his client he had fully cooperated with the police.
The prosecutor stated that between January 2008 and October this year, Barnes had been employed as a cashier and Pearson as a systems engineer at GRA. He said that both men had received in excess of $3 million from taxpayers and had issued receipts to these persons. He claimed that before balancing off the accounts at the end of the day Pearson had deleted the transactions from the computer system but had replaced it to facilitate the removal of goods and after this was done had again removed the transaction from the computer system.
The prosecutor claimed that on October 22 this year, Barnes was caught with over $1 million in his possession and had later contacted Pearson who replaced the transaction in the computer system.The prosecutor went on to say that a forensic auditor was retained by the company who showed that the duo acted together to commit the fraud.
Telford then objected to Pearson’s bail application and requested that an arrest warrant be issued for Barnes. He said the prosecution had received the case file from the Director of Public Prosecu-tion who had given advice in the matter and he was ready to vigorously prosecute the matter.
After Pearson was granted bail the prosecutor requested that his passport be lodged at the police station but this was not granted. An arrest warrant was also not issued for Barnes since he was never notified of the allegations made against him.
Pearson is expected to make another court appearance on January 29 next year.
