After being sentenced to four years in prison for stealing almost $600,000 by forging cheques intended for her employer, confessed fraudster Jasodhra Bahadur on Thursday also admitted to 26 charges of simple larceny of sums that amounted to over $11M.
For each of the additional charges, Bahadur, a 37-year-old mother of one, received three-year prison sentences but they will run concurrently. As a result, she will only be jailed for four years.
The former sales clerk, of 18 Block CC Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, was found guilty of stealing $597, 659, from Mohamed R. D. Khan on February 13, 2013, in Georgetown.
Trial Magistrate Judy Latchman, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court 3, noted that Bahadur sought to help herself for the love of money. In determining the sentence, the magistrate said she considered the fact that Bahadur disobeyed the commandment “Thou shall not steal’ and the law of the land, thereby “disobeying both God and man.” She also considered the seriousness of the offence and the need to prevent others from committing such crimes. Bahadur had a total of 33 charges of simple larceny laid against her and of those charges, the prosecution embarked on a joint charge for seven.
On Wednesday, a prima facie case was made out for the charge for which Bahadur was convicted, while no case was not made out for the other six charges.
When the Magistrate asked Bahadur whether she had anything to say, she promptly responded, “no.”
After the court heard from the prosecutor that Bahadur had pending matters of similar nature for which she is required to stand trial, a date was set for commencement of trial.
However, when the proceedings were due to commence after an adjournment, Bahadur reappeared and requested to change her pleas to guilty to the 26 other charges. It was the police’s case that Bahadur, a sales clerk at New Horizon Inc, stole from payments made to company by Khan, the owner of Dino’s Enterprise, located in Bartica.
Khan was a regular customer of New Horizon Inc, prosecutor Vishnu Hunt stated.
An employee of Khan would call New Horizon Inc to place his order and arranged for goods to be picked up, at which point a blank cheque was delivered for goods purchased. Khan and New Horizon had agreed that the name of the payee and amount on the invoice for the purchased goods would be inserted for each payment. However, it was found that Bahadur wrote her name as the payee and amounts which were in excess of what was owed, Hunt said. Further, the results of a handwriting analysis confirmed that Bahadur’s handwriting matched what was on the cheques and her signature on her caution statement, Hunt added.
The prosecutor said in the caution statement, which had her signature affixed, Bahadur admitted that she stole the money after she was experiencing financial difficulty and she also promised to return the cash to her employer.
In relation to the simple larceny charges, Bahadur was accused of identifying herself as payee on 26 blank cheques signed by Khan, when she was required to write the name of her employer and the amount invoiced for sold goods. The inflated amount on the 26 cheques amounted to over $11M.
