Court dismisses Fraud Conspiracy charges against retired and serving senior Police Officers

By Svetlana Marshall

Fraud charges against six retired senior Police Officers and three serving senior Police Officers, were dismissed today by Magistrate Rhondel Weever over the lack of evidence.

Assistant Police Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor, Senior Superintendent of Police Marcelene Washington and Asst. Superintendent Marlon Kellman were charged along with retired senior Officers Paul Slowe, Clinton Conway, Claude Whittaker, George Fraser, Mark Gilbert, and Michael Sutton in May 2021, for allegedly conspiring with each other and persons unknown to defraud the Guyana Police Force of $10,056,000.

The fraud charges were related to the retired officers being hired by the Police Force in 2018 to review the Force’s Standing Orders.

The Police Force in its charge stated that the proper procedures were not followed to do the review, and the Special Organised Crime Unit, moved ahead with the fraud charges against the retired officers, as well as the serving officers.

The Prosecution submitted that the review of the 2002 Guyana Police Force’s Standing Orders was done sometime between July and August 2018 by a team of Policy Analysts of the Strategic Planning Unit of the Guyana Police Force, and that there was no evidence of a written agreement or written contract between the defendants and the Police Force

However, in handing down the decision, the Magistrate ruled that the evidence of the Prosecution witnesses clearly contradicted the prosecution’s own case, as to whether an agreement existed between the retired Officers and the Guyana Police Force in relation to the revision of the Guyana Police Force Standing Orders.

The Magistrate said based on the evidence provided, it was clear that the review of the Standing Orders of the Force was done by the retired Officers, and the Commissioner of Police at the time was aware of the work being done by the men. She said there was no evidence that the arrangement was not authorized or approved and services were rendered to the Police Force.

The Magistrate also pointed out that a Memorandum detailing the hours worked by the retired officers, the computer they used and other documents were provided to the Special Organised Crime Unit, and remained in the possession of SOCU at the time of the charges.

The Magistrate said those essential documents were never disclosed to the Court and has raised eyebrows over the conduct of SOCU, since the Prosecution failed to disclose critical pieces of evidence that were in the possession of SOCU.

The Magistrate said there was not an iota of evidence establishing conspiracy or any agreement between the accused to defraud the Police Force. She said the Prosecution failed to prove its case on every link.

The Magistrate therefore upheld the no case submission of the Defence Attorneys, even as the Prosecution indicated its plan to appeal the matter.

Outside the courtroom, lawyers for the defendants Dexter Todd and Darren Wade said it was clear that the prosecution had absolutely no evidence to support its case.

“We were sure that this matter would have stopped at this stage because the charges were bad,” Todd told reporters.

He said the statements disclosed in court raised many questions, including, whether or not the files were indeed sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) before the charges were laid.

“If any lawyer, sitting and reading these statements can watch five former servicemen in their face and say listen I will charge you for conspiracy. How? From the statements alone, there was absolutely nothing jumping out of the meeting of the mind, of any body planning to defraud the police force. So, these charges were bound to fail from the beginning,” Todd said.

He said the judgement was a very good one, and in keeping with the law. Attorney Darren Wade said the conduct of SOCU as highlighted by the Magistrate is indeed concerning.

“The magistrate identified and called out SOCU for basically hiding evidence. There were memorandums, there were petty contracts. So, you cannot claim that these men carried out work without a contract when there was a contract,” Wade said.

Describing the charges against the nine defendants as convenient, Wade pointed out that shortly after those charges were laid, Slowe and the other Commissioners were suspended from the Police Service Commission by President Irfaan Ali.

The High Court eventually ruled that suspension unconstitutional after it was challenged.

“What benefited the State at this point is that Mr Irfaan Ali was able to suspend the Police Service Commission, and we all know, the entire Guyana all know what came after. They were able to promote their own people and place them in the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force, sadly. Sadly, these men who served Guyana with distinction over the years had to go through this,” Wade said.

The retired Officers who conducted the review and revision of the Force’s standing orders did so on the invitation and request of the then Police Commissioner Leslie James.

They were provided with an office in the Strategic Management Unit of the Force to conduct their work and they were paid for the work that was done.

The $10 million referred to in the charge represents the total payment to all of the retired officers during the months that they conducted work on the Standing Orders.