Five former senior cops accused of $10M fraud

Police on Wednesday arrested five former policemen, who served in senior positions within the Guyana Police Force, who are accused of defrauding the State of $10,056,000.

The News Room was reliably informed that two former Assistant Commissioners of Police, Clinton Conway and Claude Whittaker, along with three former Senior Superintendents, Mark Gilbert, George Fraser and Michael Sutton, were taken into custody and are expected to be charged soon.

The News Room has confirmed that the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) conducted a probe and discovered that the five former policemen were paid just over $10 million to review the Standing Orders of the Guyana Police Force.

However, it was discovered that this review was already conducted in July 2018 and completed in March 2019 by the Force’s Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) which submitted its report.

Police Headquarters, in a subsequent statement, revealed that the former senior cops have so far failed to present to the Guyana Police Force a completed revised Standing.

“The Guyana Police Force has a Standing Order which comprises of 104 Standing Orders. The entire 104 Standing Orders of the Guyana Police Force was completely revised by Civilian Police Analysts that work at the Strategic Planning Unit of the Guyana Police Force between July 2018 and March 2019. However, [they] were paid to do the same revision when it was already done.

“About eight of these officers… conspired together and gave themselves a job that clearly should have gone to the Tender Board by law because of the quantity,” the Police Force noted in its release.

The News Room understands that SOCU is also looking for another Assistant Commissioner, who was involved in the alleged fraud.