Arima fisherman charged with fraud

An Arima fisherman was granted $750,000 bail, when he appeared before a San Fernando Magistrate on Friday last, charged with five counts of fraud, amounting to approximately $693,000.

In a release, police said Sheldon Taylor, 49, of Cleaver Road, Arima was charged with two counts of uttering a forged valuable security, uttering a forged document, and two counts of attempting to obtain sums of money by virtue of a forged instrument. He appeared before Magistrate Alicia Chankar.

The matter was postponed to September 29.

Taylor is alleged to have given three persons, two fraudulent Tobago House of Assembly cheques, in the sums of $347,259.10 and $345,591.25, to deposit into a business account at First Citizens Bank, in San Fernando on August 28.

After the cheques were found to be fraudulent, the Fraud Squad was contacted and the three suspects arrested and questioned.

They indicated they had been given the cheques by Taylor, who later surrendered on August 30.