Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Dismissed Sergeant gets nine charges for travel allowance fraud
A dismissed member of the Guyana Police Force was yesterday slapped with nine fraud charges in relation to allegedly granting himself travel allowances that he was not entitled to.
Thirty-five-year-old Tamesh Dhanraj, of 371 Hampton Court, Essequibo Coast, is alleged to have taken close to $500,000 in travel allowance, while being a Sergeant and financial officer at the Anna Regina Police Station, where he was stationed.
Charged: Dismissed Police Sergeant Tamesh Dhanraj
Dhanraj was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The nine charges alleged that between July 4, 2017 and May 4, 2018, at Anna Regina Police Station, with intent to defraud, he obtained the sum of $477,470 from the Guyana Police Force, by falsely pretending that he was entitled to travel allowance to conduct official duties for the Guyana Police Force.
Facts presented by Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers stated that Dhanraj was the financial officer at the Anna Regina Station, and it was during the periods mentioned in the charge that he allegedly took the money.
The Prosecutor said that an audit was conducted in 2018, and that showed the discrepancies which prompted an investigation. He added that Dhanraj left Guyana and went to the US, knowing that he was being investigated by the police.
The court heard that Dhanraj was instructed to report to investigators at Essequibo, but he did not. This was while he was still a member of the Guyana Police Force. Hence, he was dismissed from the Force on January 29, after he absconded from duties.
It was only recently that he returned to Guyana and was arrested and charged for the offences.
However, the man’s lawyer, Latchmie Rahamat, in a successful bail application to the court, said that her client resigned from the GPF last September. She added that her client has since submitted a written statement denying the allegations.
The Magistrate after listening to the facts released Dhanraj on $225,000 bail and ordered him to make his next court appearance on March 13, 2019, at the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court.
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