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Ex-supervisor accused of plucking $19M from Royal Castle
A former supervisor of Royal Castle Guyana Inc. is now facing three charges after she allegedly stole $19M from that establishment over a one year period.
Candacy Stuart
Candacy Stuart was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts to have the charges read to her and she denied all.
The first charge alleged that between January 2, 2018 and September 29, 2018, at Sherriff Street, Georgetown, while she was a clerk or servant of Royal Castle Guyana Inc., she stole $8,740,695 from the entity.
Also, it was alleged that between October 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018, at Diamond East Bank Demerara, while she was a clerk or servant of Royal Castle Guyana Inc., she stole $5, 975,209 from her work place.
The third charge read that she stole $4,640,409 from Royal Castle Guyana Inc. between January 2, 2019 and February 27, 2019; at Diamond East Bank Demerara, while she was a clerk or servant of the business establishment.
The woman was represented by attorney-at-law Dexter Todd who asked for bail to be given to his client in the most reasonable sum.
He told the court that Stuart is a 33-year-old mother of three from 40 Princes Street, Lodge. He added that the woman is gainfully self-employed as a food vendor.
According to the lawyer, up to February of this year, the defendant was an acting supervisor of Royal Castle after serving the entity for seven years. Todd stated that this matter was under investigation since February 2019 and Stuart, along with a few others, was being investigated.
The attorney said that initially the police were investigating these persons in relation to $91M in losses from the entity over a period of time and his client received charges for $19M.
Moreover, Todd is arguing that more than one person was responsible for accessing and checking money for the company and this would prove that others may have committed the acts leaving his client to be blamed as the supervisor.
Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield stated that during the period mentioned in the charges an internal audit was conducted and it was revealed that several millions of dollars were missing.
He said investigations were carried out by the police which led to the discovery that the defendant exploited a point of sale software of the company in order to allegedly steal the monies.
Following the investigations, the defendant was arrested and the charges were put to her. Later the charges were instituted against her.
In regards to the exploitation of the financial software, the lawyer claimed that his client has no training in computer software and therefore there was no way she could tamper with the system.
In fact, the lawyer said, “Your worship, my client could barely operate her cell phone, much less to tamper with the software of a computer.”
Prosecutor Mansfield had no objections to bail, however. He asked that the same should be granted in a substantial amount based on the seriousness of the allegation. He also asked for further conditions to be attached to the bail.
After listening to both sides, Magistrate McLennan granted bail in the sum of $100,000 for each charge under the condition that the defendant report to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters fraud squad every Friday.
She is to also lodge her passport with the clerk of court. All this should be done pending the outcome of the matter. The case was then adjourned to December 5, 2019.
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