Cashier placed on $650,000 bail over theft from Lands and Surveys

Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry yesterday granted bail in the sum of $650,000 to a 23-year-old woman charged with stealing millions of dollars from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC).

Treadecia Lewis of 76 Claybrick Street, Den Amstel pleaded not guilty to the charge larceny by servant when it was read to her at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

Lewis denied that between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012, at Georgetown being employed at the GL&SC as a public servant of Guyana she stole $4,684,918.

Police Corporal Kerry Bostwick, prosecuting, stated that an audit was conducted and it was found that on 48 occasions while Lewis was a cashier, she collected sums of money which she converted to her own use.

Bostwick added that the police investigated the matter and on advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lewis was to have repaid the money by the first week in April 2013, which she failed to do.

Her attorney requested that she be admitted to bail in a reasonable sum since she has a fixed place of abode with her mother at 76 Claybrick Street, Den Amstel, West Bank Demerara (WBD). He said she is the mother of a 10-month-old baby and has been cooperating with the police investigations.

Bostwick had no objections to bail. However, he asked that it be a substantial sum.

He also asked that Lewis lodge her passport with the police and report to Corporal Garnett at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Eve Leary.