Contractor charged for trying to swindle $4.8m from government

A 63-year-old Chaguanas man was granted bail of $150,000 after he was charged with attempting to obtain $4.8 million from the government by false pretences and uttering a forged document.

A police media release on Friday said Terrance Hypolite, of Edinburgh, Chaguanas, appeared before a justice of the peace at the Woodbrook police station on Thursday charged with the the offences.

He is expected to appear virtually before a Port of Spain magistrate on March 25.

The release alleged Hypolite went to a commercial bank in Diego Martin last Wednesday, where he gave staff a government cheque for $4.8 million.

Hypolite also presented copies of award-of-contract letters allegedly issued by a special-purpose state company to his construction company to begin infrastructural works at a port project in Toco which was supposed to begin on March 25.

The cheque was accepted as genuine by the bank and the proceeds put on hold to the company's business account until it could be verified.

While it was being processed, however, the Central Bank alerted the commercial bank that the cheque had not been issued by the government and was fraudulent.

The Fraud Squad was called in and investigations found there was no contract between the state company and Hypolite's construction company.

It was also found that there was no port project in Toco.

Hypolite was arrested on Wednesday by the Fraud Squad and charged by WPC Kennedy on Thursday.