Georgetown: Nigel Adams, a driver of 21 Ogle, East Coast Demerara; and Gary Emanuel Dundas, a 49-year-old technician of Lot 432 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, accused of embezzling millions from the Ministry of Finance, were yesterday in tears after being found guilty as charged by Magistrate Leron Dailey at the Providence Magistrate’s Court.They were each sentenced to three years’ imprisonment; and they still have several other similar matters pending in court.
The men were convicted on a charge which detailed that between January 1 and 20, 2011, at the Accountant General’s Department of the Ministry of Finance, they conspired with a person or persons unknown to steal $2.4M, property of the State of Guyana.
The magistrate explained that she found the alleged charge of embezzling money inconclusive because the men were not employed as clerk or servant to the said ministry. However, she said a case of simple larceny had been made out by Police Prosecutor Inspector Michael Grant.
During the trial, six witnesses were called to give testimony, including Colleen Easton (Adams’s mother-in-law) who was in 2014 sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment by City Magistrate Judy Latchman for conspiracy to commit a felony offence.
In Easton’s testimony, she explained that she had been given a cheque by the men, and taken by them to the Finance Ministry, where they had caused her to uplift a cheque for $2,892,000 which she took from the Bank of Guyana and gave to Adams afterwards.
The men’s attorney had urged the court to consider the ownership of the money, citing that it had no owner. But the Magistrate, in her ruling, explained that the money was already owned by Guyana, which is why the case of larceny had been made out, since the money belongs to another.
The men are currently on trial on several other charges stemming from a fraud at the Accountant General’s Department. They will return at the Providence Court on August 12 to continue trail on the other pending matters.
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