A decision on the fate of Carvil Duncan, the former director who is accused of stealing from the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), was not delivered as expected yesterday after the presiding magistrate said she needed more time to study the submissions.
Although yesterday was set for a ruling Magistrate Leron Daly stated that she needed further time as she had not had the chance to read the submissions as thoroughly as she would have liked. Attorney Glenn Hanoman, who is now substituting for Duncan’s original lawyer, Charles Ramson Jr, also requested further time so that his own case submissions can be made.
The decision has now been adjourned to September 23rd.
Duncan is facing charges that he and another, on March 31st, 2015, at Georgetown, conspired to steal $984,900, which was the property of GPL.
It is also alleged that Duncan and another conspired to steal $27,757,547, between May 7th and May 8th, 2015. That money was also the property of GPL.
The charges against the accused stem from payments that were made by former GPL Deputy Chief Executive Aeshwar Deonarine and Duncan to themselves and which were uncovered by a forensic audit that was commissioned after the APNU+AFC government entered office last year. The money allegedly stolen by Duncan represents retroactive payments for his time on the GPL Board.
In his closing arguments, Ramson Jr had submitted that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Duncan did not receive authorisation to pay himself the money that he is accused of stealing from the company.
He also argued that the charge was misconceived and the court has no choice but to dismiss it. He noted that while evidence established that Duncan, who was one of the signatories to the company’s Republic Bank account, withdrew the money from the company’s account by way of a cheque, it has been established by precedent that a cheque cannot be the subject of simple larceny under the law.
