Prosecutor wants High Court to try former Govt. Minister

Dec 01, 2015 News

Police Corporal, Bharrat Mangru, who is presenting the case of the prosecution in Dr. Jennifer Westford fraud case, wants the matter to be transferred to the High Court, based on the English Authority.

Margaret Cummings

According to Mangru, the Magistrates’ court has no jurisdiction in dealing with matters of executive abuse, which was cited by Senior Counsel Neil Boston. The prosecutor told the court that while the Magistrates’ court has jurisdiction to deal with abuse of process, he stated that the power is limited to delays and fairness of trial as it relates to executive abuse.
This was his response to a lengthy submission made by Boston at a November 12, court hearing. The matter was called again before City Magistrate Fabayo Azore in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts yesterday.
Boston has maintained that the institution of criminal charges against the former Minister and her Personal Assistant breaches an amnesty promise made by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, during a press conference earlier this year.
Boston made this claim as he addressed the court on why court proceedings against his clients should not go forward.
In response, Mangru argued that an amnesty was never granted by the Minister for the return of state vehicles.
Magistrate Fabayo Azore after documenting the submission in her book of minutes fixed January 19, 2016, for ruling.
The former Minister was placed on a total of $800,000 bail after she pleaded not guilty to eight charges back in July. The charges alleged that between July 17, 2014 and June 23, 2015, she attempted to transfer eight state vehicles to four persons, including her husband, Gary Beaton; Osbert McPherson, Wayne Walker and Delroy Lewis.

Former Minister, Jennifer Westford

Westford’s former Chief Personnel Officer, Margaret Cummings was also slapped with four counts of forgery.
Cummings also pleaded not guilty to four charges which alleged that she forged documents for the purchase of the eight motor vehicles. She has been released on a total of $1.2M bail.
The Ministry of the Presidency had filed an official complaint to the police in late July, after finding more than $120M missing from the bank accounts of the Ministry.
Investigators stumbled on more than $400M missing from the bank accounts. The police, who the matter had been handed over to, had dispatched a special team to the Ministry of the Presidency to examine records of the payments.
Several staffers as well as former Minister of Public Service and her ex-assistant, Margaret Cummings, were questioned during the probe.
Investigators had initially looked at 2014 transactions at the Ministry but went back to 2012. The monies were transferred from the Office of the President and were to be used for training workers in the various Regions. However, there was no evidence that the Regions were in receipt of any money.
As a result, the former Minister and her ex-assistant were questioned by police and the charges were subsequently laid against them.