Brazilian national Raymond Moreira, who was in September charged with illegally withdrawing $60,000 from a local ATM, was yesterday found not guilty of the crime by a city court.
The decision came at the end of an ex-parte trial held in the absence of the defendant, who had been granted $100,000 bail by the court at his arraignment.
It had been alleged that Moreira, a businessman, on August 31st, stole $60,000 from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI). It was the prosecution’s case that on the day in question, he went to the ATM machine and used a Visa card to withdraw the sum of money without being an account holder at the bank.
Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan stated that the court had had the benefit of reviewing the ATM footage, where Moreira was seen withdrawing money from the machine.
She said too that the prosecution had presented evidence stating that the information on the front of the card did not match that on the strip, indicating that the card may have been fraudulent. They, however, had carried out no further processing of the cards, therefore failing to provide adequate evidence that the card was fake.
The magistrate in her ruling, said that she had examined who the money in the bank is really owned by, be it the entity, those who have deposited, or anyone who has access to the money, noting that this evidence was not provided by the prosecution and the court was in no position to speculate. She said that she was satisfied that the defendant had withdrawn money but must rule that the prosecution failed to prove he had no authority to do so and that the act was a dishonest one.
She therefore ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and ordered that the case be dismissed.
At Moreira’s arraignment, prosecutor Deniro Jones had told the court that he had entered the country through Lethem for a vacation and withdrew $60,000 from the GBTI bank although he was not a holder of any bank accounts in Guyana. When the accused attempted to withdraw money a second time, he was confronted and arrested. Jones informed the court that although the Visa card Moreira had in his possession bears his name, the account is registered to someone else.
Moreira, when asked if he would like to offer an explanation to the court, stated that his bank allowed him the freedom to withdraw money at any location as long as the respective local bank offered Visa services. The accused further stated that he had withdrawn money in Guyana and in the US on previous occasions without encountering any problems.
