Actress Sonia Yarde was yesterday placed on $60,000 bail when she appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for allegedly embezzling a quantity of money from the Ministry of Health while she was employed there.

Yarde, 29, of Lot 4 Norton Street, Wortmanville, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of embezzlement by a public officer when Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson read it to her.

She denied that between January 1, 1996 and July 31, 2007 at the Ministry of Health Building, while being employed there, she fraudulently embezzled $78,472 that she had received on behalf of that ministry.

Her lawyer Nigel Hughes, who appeared in association with attorney-at-law Tanya Warren, applied for reasonable bail for her, noting that she had been placed on $100,000 bail for a related matter.

Prosecutor Stephen Telford made no objections to the bail application but stated that none of the money was recovered. He requested that an early date be set for a Preliminary Inquiry into this matter.

The magistrate initially granted Yarde $75,000 bail but when she asked for a reduction in the sum, the magistrate placed her on $60,000 bail instead. She will make another court appearance on January 19.