A Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) clerk yesterday pleaded not guilty to larceny by a clerk or servant when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson in the Georgetown Magi-strates’ Court, and he was subsequently put on $200,000 bail.
Eon Halavcone, also known as DJ Moses, 32, of 22 Triumph Village, East Coast Demerara, is alleged to have stolen $926,146 on January 5 while being employed at GRA as a clerk.
Representing Halvacone, attorney-at-law James Bond, in his bid for bail told the court that his client was employed as a senior clerk of the GRA and his duty was to transfer for the GRA to the Bank of Guyana in excess of one billion dollars.
Halavcone also hosts a television programme on Channel 67 where he uses the name DJ Moses.
On the day in question Bond said his client was supposed to have deposited some $5 million to the bank but when he got to the bank he discovered that it was not the full amount.
Bond further said that his client was in contact with his supervisor and after they realised that Halavcone could not make it back to the bank in time the arrangement was that Halavcone would keep the money until the next day when he would deposit the full amount.
Bond said this was what his client’s supervisor had arranged and it was only after his client saw the newspaper which stated that he had disappeared with the money that he sent the money back to his workplace with a friend.
Halvacone, Bond said, then went to work and was sent home only to learn later that he was being charged.
Wrapping up his bail submissions, Bond said his client was not a flight risk and questioned why he would give up $4 million for the sum he is alleged to have stolen.
Police Prosecutor Inspector Stephen Telford, told the court that while the alleged sum was returned, the GRA still wanted to pursue the matter. However, Bond countered that his client was being made a poster boy for all the other missing monies for which the GRA could not account.
Telford said that when Halvacone’s supervisor had tried to make contact with the defendant to see if the money was deposited he got no answer.
The supervisor then went to the bank to check for himself and that is when it was discovered that not all the money had been deposited.
The prosecutor then asked that the defendant’s passport be lodged and that he should report every Friday at 9 am at the Brickdam Police Station. While Bond did not object to his client reporting every Friday morning, he said that there was no need for the passport to be lodged since it had expired.
The magistrate before handing down her judgment asked that Halvacone’s passport be brought to the court. Some time later, after the passport was tendered in court, the magistrate placed Halvacone on $200,000 bail. He is to return to court on February 26 for statements and report.