Although she was recently cleared of a charge of obtaining almost $1 million by false pretence, Carole Chester believes that she last lost as a result of the court case.
“I can’t begin to say the level of embarrassment I have faced,” Chester told Stabroek News, “Being humiliated publicly, after all the trauma, damaged mentally, emotionally, socially, financially [and] morally. It has stripped me of my life’s passion and momentum in seconds. There’re no words to describe what has been taken away from me.”
The charge against Chester alleged that between August 1st and September 30th, 2018, at Georgetown, she obtained $960,000 from Rayan Ferrier by falsely pretending she was in a position to obtain a house lot for him, knowing same to be false.
It was later dismissed by Magistrate Rhondel Weever after the court upheld no case submissions made by Chester’s attorney, Eusi Anderson.
Being widow for seven years and the mother of a daughter who died at the age of 15, Chester noted that though still grieving the loss of her husband and daughter, she sought to overcome her grief by giving back to her community and country. She noted that she founded the Guyana All Age Dreamers Relief Foundation to aide in the elimination of poverty and she ended up funding many programmes with her own earnings.
Chester is also a small business owner and hosts conferences, workshops and other events, most of which are held in collaboration with a number of agencies, such as the Childcare and Protection Agency and the Social Cohesion Ministry.
“Being a community based worker in my hometown Linden and around my country, for over six years I was doing what I love and passionate about, growth and development. I worked with other youth groups dealing with people of all ages on different programmes,” she noted.
She stated that at the time of the accusation made against her she was the advisor to the ex-Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland’s youth group, ‘The Linden Youth Leaders’ and worked with youth’s from 14-years-old. Chester noted that she was also planning her annual event, the ‘Caribbean Food Festival,’ alongside other groups. However, after she got charged, everything changed.
Events she would have been working on for quite some time did not come off the ground.
Chester stated, however, that despite all of this, she still attempted to live a normal life and had the support of a few persons. “With the charge I went from a life of prestige to prisoner,” she stated.
Chester expressed her desire to get back to the normal life that she once had, prior to the charge but questioned if her life would ever be the same as she noted that she feels like she has to start over. “I’m free but I’ve lost my credibility” she said.
