Soldiers to repay $1.5m from TTDF payroll scam

Two members of the Defence Force (TTDF), accused of fleecing it of almost $1.5 million in a payroll scam, have agreed to repay the funds.

Lance Cpl Jason Richards and Private Josimar Belgrave came to an agreement with the State when the matter came up before Justice Ricky Rahim in the Port of Spain High Court on Wednesday.

Last August, the Attorney General was granted an ex-parte order against the soldiers, seeking among other things, repayment of money embezzled from the TTDF and the freezing of their assets, and orders for disclosure and discovery from the two and certain financial institutions. According to the order, the two agreed to repay $1,480,000. It was also ordered that Belgrave deliver to the TTDF, his 2008 Nissan Tiana car.

He also agreed to take steps to sell the car. The same also applies to Richards for his 2012 Versa. It is alleged the two, who have been charged with criminal offences arising out of the incident, each “received” $740,000 from the TTDF by a series of unauthorised payments. These payments were said to have been made by gaining access to the payroll system and manipulating legitimate payments for a category of payments labelled as, D Rent.

Four unauthorised payments were made between May 16 and July 17. The bank records of the two and their statements have been given to the TTDF. The two appeared on fraud charges last October and were granted $350,000 bail. Richards, a payroll clerk, was slapped with the majority of the charges, as he was accused of stealing money by inflating his and Belgrave’s rent allowance between February and July.

He was also charged with wilfully falsifying the TTDF’s human-resource records in a bid to cover up the crimes and was given a charge for each time he disposed of the money by transfers from his account to those of his relatives and through ATM and traditional withdrawals.

Belgrave, a striker with the TTDF’s TT Pro League team, was only slapped with charges for disposing of the money through various transfers and withdrawals. The state is being represented by Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson, Ravi Rajcoomar, Jerome Rajcoomar and Shivana Nath. Stephen Wilson appeared for the soldiers.