Three women were yesterday found guilty of fraudulently converting in excess of $48M from Telecom Solutions (Guyana) Inc.
They had been charged in 2011 for the offence and were yesterday found guilty by a city Magistrate.
Magistrate Leron Daly yesterday found Melissa Naughton, 39, of Lot 64 Robert Street, Better Hope; Candacie Marshall, 26, of 3602 North Ruimveldt and Oladara Christian, 28, of Lot 36 Shell Road, Kitty, guilty of the charge which had stated that between June 25, 2008 and November 23, 2009 they conspired together with other persons to embezzle in excess of $48M in credit from Telecom Solutions Inc. The trio had initial plead not guilty to the charges and as such a trial into the matter had commenced.
According to the magistrate, the trial that has been ongoing for several months had heard varying evidence that was presented by the defence and the prosecution. Magistrate Daly said that the reason why she had found the women guilty was due to the overwhelming proof which was provided by Prosecutor Shevon Jupiter, that they had embezzled the large sum money.
However, the women who were represented by Attorneys-at-Law Adrian Thompson, Ronald Burch-Smith and Everton Singh Lammy, though unhappy that the women were found guilty, appreciated the fact the magistrate granted a hearing for a probation report for the women. After a report from a probation officer the women will be sentenced.
The matter was subsequently adjourned until September 26.
At the initial arraignment back in 2011, Police Prosecutor Lionel Harvey, said that the trio was employed at the company. He said that Naughton and Christian were employed as cashiers at the time and they were responsible for selling large amounts of Digicel credit via a computerised system.
He further said that they invalidated several transactions which were written off, after which they would revalidate those transactions and sell them to persons and receive the proceeds for themselves. The prosecutor added that an investigation was launched and it was then discovered that the transactions (air time) were sold to persons by the number three accused but the money never went into the company’s account.
The prosecutor also stated that number two accused (Marshall) was the person who allegedly from time to time solicited the customers.
