Three employees of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) appeared on Thursday before a Georgetown magistrate jointly charged with fraud.
According to the prosecution’s case, Quincy McKenzie, Garfield Oneil and Alicia Steele, with intent to defraud, demanded with menace some $40,000 cash from virtual complainant (VC) Mitra Persaud on April 7, 2017 at William and Queen Streets in the Georgetown ward of Kitty.
Defendants Quincy McKenzie (left) and Garfield Oneil
The three defendants reportedly visited Persaud’s home in relation to a dysfunctional meter which they told her had been tampered with. They demanded cash from the woman, and threatened to remove the meter in the event she did not pay.
The three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them by the magistrate, and Attorney-at-law James Bond, representing McKenzie, related that his client is a 35-year-old father of one who permanently resides in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown and is not a flight risk. Oneil, he said, is a 29-year-old church deacon who resides at Diamond, East Bank Demerara; while Steele, 28, has a fixed place of abode in Lamaha Gardens, Georgetown.
Each member of the trio was granted bail in the sum of $40,000.
Quincy McKenzie was slapped with another charge, wherein he was alleged to have obtained, on April 10, the sum of $65,000 cash from the VC, Persaud, under the false pretence that he was in a position to install a GPL meter at her home. The accused was granted $60,000 bail on this count.
All these matters are expected to be continued on May 15 at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
