A third woman was yesterday charged for her alleged involvement in the CLICO insurance company fraud and she was granted $150,000 bail by Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan at the George-town Magistrate’s Court.
Stacy De Nobrega, 26, of 151 Sixth Street, Alberttown was not required to plead to conspiracy to commit a felony.
It is alleged that on January 26 with intent to defraud she conspired with persons unknown to commit a felony in forging one Republic Bank cheque. The cheque was for CLICO Insurance Company in favour of Christine Stevens for $4.1 million.
On Tuesday two others appeared before the same magistrate and were each also granted bail in the amount of $150,000. The two were Sherylyn Solomon, 26, of 213 Stanley Place, Kitty, an employee of CLICO, who was not required to plead to forgery while Christine Stevens, 21, of 61 Oleander Gardens was not required to plead to two charges of obtaining money by false pretence. It is alleged that on January 25 at Georgetown with intent to defraud Solomon conspired with persons unknown to commit a felony, to wit forgery. She is alleged to have forged one Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) cheque for $6,500,000. Stevens allegedly on January 26 with intent to defraud obtained from Republic Bank Guyana Limited the sum of $4.1 million. She is accused of falsely pretending that she was entitled to collect the said sum from a CLICO Life Insurance cheque knowing same to be untrue. She also on the same date allegedly with intent to defraud obtained $4.1 million upon a CLICO Insurance cheque knowing it to be forged.
According to a police press release, the company has alleged that there were four fake transactions where the lives of four people were insured and death certificates were subsequently produced and money collected by various beneficiaries. The company had said that it detected the fraud through its own existing control systems and found some transactions that were not normal to the course of business.
De Nobrega was represented by attorney-at-law Debra Barker who told the court that her client was married and had a four-year-old son. She added too that De Nobrega never had a problem with the law before and that she comes from a respectable family that is known to her. She then requested bail.
Police prosecutor Sherwin Matthews did not object to bail but asked that the court make an order for De Nobrega to report to the station today.
Barker had first questioned this saying that she hoped that the police were not using this as a guise for her to be kept until Tuesday. She had asked that De Nobrega report on the next working day on Tuesday. However after the police told her that they had no intention of doing such a thing she agreed.
She will return to court on April 18.
