A former prisons officer who allegedly tried to deposit a bogus $3.6 million cheque payable to his company was granted $150,000 bail yesterday.
Nasiff Mohammed, 42, re-appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Nanette Forde-John in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court yesterday on four fraud charges.
He had appeared before the same magistrate on Thursday and was remanded into custody. As part of his bail conditions, Mohammed has to report to the Fraud Squad seven days a week.
The charges, laid by Cpl Charles Badree of the Fraud Squad, include two offences of uttering a forged document, uttering a forged valuable security and attempting to obtain $3,678,575 by false pretences.
They alleged that on Monday he and a female relative went to Republic Bank Ltd at Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, where he opened a saving’s account in the name of Nim Security Services Ltd, indicating that both he and the relative were directors.
It is further alleged that he attempted to deposit into the account a First Citizen’s cheque to the value of $3,678,575 from Methanol Holdings Ltd and payable to his security firm.
Together with the cheque, it is alleged he produced two letters from Methanol Holdings Ltd. However, the bank officials called the Fraud Squad after they contacted the company to verify whether it had issued the cheque.
Mohammed was charged following investigations spearheaded by Supt Tootaram Dookie and supervised by ASP Kent Ghisyawan, Sgts Popan and Samuel. The charges were laid indictable so he was not asked to enter a plea.
Mohammed was represented by attorney Delicia Helwig-Robertson who held for his attorney Taradath Singh. He indicated that he had no previous convictions and no pending matters.
The prosecution, however, asked for the matter to be adjourned to Monday for a fingerprint trace to confirm that information.
Helwig-Robertson, however, objected on the grounds that the police had sufficient time since her client’s arrest on December 5 to trace him.
The case was adjourned to October 6.