Two police officers were today faced with a total of 38 charges stemming from the attempt to corrupt a sitting of the Guyana Police Force’s learner drivers’ theoretical examination.
Those charged are Police Corporal Ryan Grey, who was charged with 20 counts of conspiring with others to commit a misdemeanour and Police Corporal Shenese Fraser, who is the confidential secretary to the Traffic Chief, who was separately charged with 18 counts of the offence.
The charges against them state that on April 12th, 2018, with intent to defraud the public, they conspired with persons to commit a misdemeanour, that is to say, they uttered questionnaires, knowing them to be forged, in that they were not written by the persons listed.
They were not required to plead to the charges.
The court heard that the two ranks are still on the job.
Grey was subsequently granted his release on a total of $160,000 bail, while Fraser was granted her release on a total of $150,000 bail.
Police had earlier indicated that three ranks and a civilian were to be charged with the crime.
On April 18th, the Guyana Police Force had announced that the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) had launched an investigation into “seemingly massive irregularities” in the examination, which was conducted at the Felix Austin Police College in Georgetown.
It had said that the investigation was launched after a report was made to acting Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine by a senior pastor, who received complaints from a colleague who invigilated the examination.
A statement from the police force had explained that while a total of 174 persons registered to write the examination, only 106 presented themselves on the day in question. However, 207 scripts were subsequently received at the conclusion of the examination, 155 of which were completed.
“Initial enquiries revealed that a Senior Subordinate Officer who was mandated to oversee this theoretical examination in collaboration with two pastors from the Cops and Faith Community Network partnership with the Guyana Police Force, along with three junior ranks, left the examination venue shortly after the examination commenced and did not return,” the statement had explained, while noting that the three constables left the examination venue prior to the counting of the examination scripts by members of the Cops and Faith Community Network after the conclusion of the examination.
It added that a junior officer, who ought not to have been at the examination venue, also presented himself, spent some time and left. “Only the members of the Cops and Faith Community Network, that is the two pastors, were left in possession of the completed examination papers,” it noted.
The press statement had also said that preliminary enquiries indicated a complete breach of the Standard Operating Procedures governing the administration and conduct of the learner drivers’ theoretical examination.
As a result, the statement noted that persons who sat the examination would have to re-sit it.
Later the same month, Ramnarine had said that the three subordinate ranks, who were implicated in the case, were removed from their respective posts.
Ramnarine said that the ranks, who were stationed at the Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Headquarters, were removed from their posts based on the findings of a preliminary investigation, which indicated that they had a “significant hand” in the scam.
