DPP's office not to blame for 12-year delay in fraud case

The criminal case against a temporary clerk employed by the Office of the Parliament, who has been on suspension for 12 years after being charged with attempting to defraud the State, has taken 11-and-a-half years to be completed in the magistrates' court.

The case of Danny Lutchman, who was employed as parliamentary payroll clerk, with responsibility for preparing payroll sheets, was referred to by the Prime Minister, on March 23, during a press conference where he commented on the slow pace of the criminal justice system.

Dr Rowley had called the press conference to respond to questions on the refusal by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to occupy a building at Park Street, Port of Spain after Special Branch had raised security concerns.

A Sunday Express lead story on April 2, detailed the case of Lutchman who was charged in January 2011, and was eventually committed to stand trial in the High Court along with 10 other people in June 2019.

Lutchman, who has been on half-pay since being charged, has collected over $500,000 in salary while out on bail.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, in seeking to correct the record, said Lutchman's file was submitted to his office on October 18, 2022, some three years after the matter had been completed at the preliminary enquiry stage.

Therefore, between 2011 to October 2022, the matter had been under the control of the Judiciary as the presiding magistrate had oversight of the case. He said the particular matter has been with his office for under six months.

Lutchman is jointly charged with Irwin Francois, Ian Williams, Chema Mark, Kenrick Davis, Richard Simeon, Keion Fraser, Joel Augustine, Ulric Davis, William Letren and Waihung Low of defrauding Parliament of close to $270,000.

The charges against the 11 are that between July 1 and November 30, 2010, they conspired to defraud the Office of the Parliament by falsely pretending to be employed with constituency offices in La Brea, Princes Town, San Fernando, Couva South, St Augustine and Diego Martin and receiving monthly salaries totalling $269,938.43.

Before indictments are filed, the notes of evidence have to be reviewed to ensure the ingredients of the offence are made out. Sometimes the matter has to be sent back to the magistrate to get further evidence.

Gaspard said it was also inaccurate to suggest that his office had not filed indictments since 2013, as suggested by the article, noting that several hundreds had been filed since then, with approximately 200 filed in matters as recent as 2021-2022.

The DPP has stated that his department is woefully short of staff, with just 58 prosecutors to appear in over 40 magistrates courts, 13 high courts, the court of appeal, the human trafficking court, the children court among others.

In 2013, Cabinet had approved the hiring of 137 attorneys for the Office of the DPP along with 100 civilians employees to assist in information technology, human resource and other supporting departments.

The Office of the DPP has had a high turnover of staff owing to its onerous workload and recently three senior prosecutors left to take up positions as high court judges.