Fmr. SOCU Head on $300k bail after surrendering to police

Following a wanted bulletin that was published for his arrest regarding fraud allegations, the former head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Sydney James turned himself in to police in the company of his attorneys who claim he has “nothing to hide.”

“He has absolutely nothing to hide,” attorney-at-law, Dexter Todd explained to the News Room.

He said that James presented himself to officers at 13:00hrs on Monday; James was then informed of the allegations against him and later placed on $300,000 bail.

“The police informed Mr. James that they are investigating a number of matters and Mr. James has said to them very clearly that he is prepared to cooperate and that he is prepared to provide any information needed,” Todd told the News Room.

“He (Sydney James) has maintained that during his time of service as the head of SOCU, that he did so with the highest of integrity and that there was no misdoing on his part,” the attorney noted.

The former SOCU head was asked to return to SOCU’s Headquarters on Friday at 09:00hrs.

James was sent on administrative leave in July 2019 after an audit of SOCU– the body set up to investigate financial crimes -found backdated cheques, lack of receipts for various sums, forgery of signatures, irregular transactions, duplicated invoices and other fraudulent activities between 2016-2019.

The audit was ordered in February 2019 by then Police Commissioner Leslie James following claims of mismanagement of over $52M collected from the Public Security Ministry for operational costs.