Three persons employed at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and a Police Constable have been charged with computer related forgery linked to the issuance of drivers’ licenses.
The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) identified the accused as Reguel Jack of Unity Place, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown; Akeem Martin of Old Road Den Amstel and Ruth Williams of Sera Lodge, Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, as well as Police Special Constable Winston Small of Avocado Place, East Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
The four persons were all charged on Monday with Computer Related Forgery when they appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Leron Daly.
They pleaded not guilty and were granted bail in the sum of $100, 000 each.
Martin and Williams were charged jointly, while Jack and Small were charged separately; the matters were adjourned to August 29 and transferred to Court Eleven for trial.
With the exception of Small, who was unrepresented by an attorney, all the other defendants were legally represented in court.
Based on a report from the Guyana Revenue Authority, SOCU conducted an investigation which revealed that during the month of October 2021, Special Constable Small arranged with Caesar, a minibus conductor, who was working with Antoney Salaman Jacobs (a bus driver), that he can get a driver’s licence for him at a cost of $83,000 from GRA.
Small indicated to Caesar that he can use Antoney’s driver’s licence and he will get someone to change the photograph.
Caesar managed to get a photograph of Antoney’s licence and on in November 2021, they both went to a clerk at Maraj building and told her that Caesar is Antoney Salaman Jacobs and that he lost his driver’s licence and identification card and is requesting an affidavit to take to GRA to process his driver’s licence.
The clerk drafted the affidavit in favour of Antoney Salamon upon Caesar’s instruction and took it to a Justice of Peace, who did not question but signed it.
Small then took Caesar to GRA with the affidavit where Jack, a lodgment clerk at GRA took Caesar’s photograph via the Licence Revenue Processing System (LRPS) and processed a driver’s licence for him in the name of Antoney Salaman Jacobs with Jacobs’s driver’s licence details.
The driver’s licence was issued to Caesar, but he lost it two weeks after.
In December 2021, Small and Caesar again obtained another affidavit and went to GRA.
Martin, another lodgment clerk at GRA then took Caesar’s photograph via the LRPS and placed it onto Antoney Salaman Jacobs’s licence.
He did the transaction without any form of identification. The license was keyed by Williams, the query clerk who certified that the transaction was authentic despite irregularities with the identification details and affidavit.
Caesar was issued with another driver’s licence and in January 2022, he was arrested for a breach of a traffic offence.
He was questioned by the traffic rank who arrested him about his driver’s licence as the traffic rank was acquainted with the identity of Jacobs.
Caesar admitted that he paid money to get the bogus licence. He was subsequently charged with Forgery and Uttering forged documents. He pleaded guilty and paid a fine.
