Magistrate shifts Dr. Jennifer Westford’s fraud case to November
PPP Member of Parliament and former Minister of Public Service, Dr. Jennifer Westford, was yesterday instructed to return to court on November 12, after her attorney was granted another adjournment date.
Former Minister of Public Service, Jennifer Westford
Yesterday was Westford’s fourth appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Her attorney, Neil Boston, was to have made an application to have the matter stayed indefinitely. Instead, Boston requested another adjournment date to address the court.
Police Prosecutor, Corporal Bharrat Mangru, had no objections to his request, which was granted by Magistrate Fabayo Azore.
Westford is currently facing four charges of attempted larceny.
The former minister was placed on a total of $800,000 bail after she pleaded not guilty to the charges. The charges alleged that between July 17, 2014 and June 23, 2015, she attempted to transfer eight state vehicles to four persons, including her husband, Gary Beaton, Osbert McPherson, Wayne Walker and Delroy Lewis.
Westford’s former Chief Personnel Officer, Margaret Cummings, was also slapped with four counts of forgery.
Cummings also pleaded not guilty to four charges which alleged that she forged documents for the purchase of the eight motor vehicles. She has been released on a total of $1.2M bail.
So far, Westford and Cummings have been served with statements in relation to the charges.
Westford is the first high-profile member of the former government to face corruption-related charges.
The Ministry of the Presidency had filed an official complaint to the police in late July, after finding more than $120M missing from the bank accounts of the Ministry.
Investigators allegedly found more than $400M missing from the bank accounts. The police had dispatched a special team to the Ministry of the Presidency to examine records of the payments.
Several staffers, as well as former Minister of Public Service and her ex-assistant, Margaret Cummings, were questioned during the probe.
Investigators had initially looked at 2014 transactions at the Ministry but went back to 2012. The monies were transferred from the Office of the President and were to be used for training workers in the various regions. However, there was no evidence that the regions were in receipt of any money.