The trial in the US$2 million GuyFlag insurance scam has been hit with another two-month adjournment after the Sacred Heart Church made an application for a special prosecutor to be appointed in the matter.
This application comes at a time when one of the ten witnesses in the matter has already concluding giving his evidence.
When the matter was called on Monday, Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton adjourned the case to March 26 after being told that the complainant – the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church – had applied to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a special prosecutor to be appointed to handle the case.
It has been over four months since evidence was last taken in this matter.
Last November, the witness could not take the stand because two lawyers – Nigel Hughes and Gino Persaud – told the court that they had applied to the DPP to represent the church.
It is alleged that on December 29, 2004, Frederick Sukhdeo, with intent to defraud forged a document purporting to be a GuyFlag fire and perils claim for US$2 million ($400 million) for the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. He is also accused of trying to obtain the said sum of money by virtue of a forged fire and perils claim form.
According to the facts of the case, GuyFlag submitted a bogus claim for payment to its reinsurance agent AON Re and Sukhdeo, who was the head of the sister operation, the National Cooperative Credit Union Limited, was presented as a representative of the church dealing with the fire.
It was when GuyFlag/ Sukhdeo allegedly app-roached a claims adjuster here that the alleged scam was discovered.
Investigations revealed that the church had no policy with GuyFlag. Sukhdeo, the alleged mastermind of the fraud, was arrested on November 17, 2005 and placed on $50,000 station bail. He was charged in March 2006, with forgery and endeavouring to obtain upon a forged document and he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on March 21. He was released on $75,000 bail on that occasion.
Since the trial was set in the latter part of 2006, it has experienced several delays. In one instance there was an adjournment when the magistrate announced that she was giving priority to a narcotics matter since the defendants in the matter were on remand. When the matter came up on March 21 last year the magistrate granted an adjournment when none of Sukhdeo’s lawyers turned up.
In August, the prosecution opened its case with testimony from Roman Catholic Bishop Francis Alleyne. He testified that when he was appointed Bishop in January 2004, he was responsible for all the catholic churches in Georgetown.
Bishop Benedict Singh is the next witness scheduled to take the stand. Attorneys-at-law Sanjeev Datadin and Winston Murray are representing Sukhdeo.
