GEA appeals dismissal of charge against Atlantic Fuels

The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) has filed an appeal against a March 2023 decision of Magistrate Dylon Bess in which he dismissed a charge relating to the furnishing of false information against Atlantic Fuels Inc (AFI). A no-case submission made by the fuel company’s lawyer, Siand Dhurjon, was upheld by Magistrate Bess, who presides at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
In August 2021, AFI’s Director, Dr Richard Van West-Charles, a former Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) was released on $100,000 bail after denying the charge.
The charge had read that on November 13, 2020, AFI submitted invoice #100 to the GEA of 295 Quamina Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown, regarding a shipment of diesel claimed to have been purchased from Global Oil NV knowing the same to be false or misleading. The offence is contrary to Regulation 70 (2) of the Petroleum and Petroleum Products Regulation 2014. The charge was filed by GEA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Mahender Sharma.
“The Guyana Energy Agency is of the view that the Learned Magistrate erred in law and/or misdirected himself on the law when he held that a prima facie case was not made out against the Defendant company and that the dismissal of the case after the prosecution closed its case was against the weight of the evidence which was before the court,” the GEA has said.
According to the GEA, it will continue its mandate in ensuring licence-holders comply with the Guyana Energy Agency Act 1997 as amended and the Petroleum and Petroleum Regulations Act of 2014 regarding the authenticity of all documents submitted to the agency.
Also in March 2023, the charge against AFI for falsifying an invoice was dismissed by the said Magistrate who ruled that the falsity was not proven beyond reasonable doubt and therefore upheld the no-case submission presented by Dhurjon. That charge was filed in January 2021 by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
It read that on November 12, 2020, at GRA’s Camp Street, Georgetown Headquarters, Atlantic Fuels Inc caused to be made and subscribed a false declaration on invoice number 100 valued at $40 million for customs declaration reference number GY 410C, contrary to the Customs Act.
AFI’s Director, Eugene Gilbert, had pleaded not guilty and was granted $300,000 bail.
This charge is contrary to Section 217 (1) (a) of the Customs Act.
Therein states: “Any person who, in any matter relating to the customs, or under the control or management of the comptroller- (a) makes and subscribed, or causes to be made and subscribed, any false declaration; … on summary conviction, that person is liable to a fine of $25,000, together with imprisonment for three years.”
It is not immediately known if the GRA has appealed the Magistrate’s ruling.
The charges filed by the GRA and GEA stemmed from a quantity of fuel that was imported by AFI in November 2020 which was seized by the two State agencies, owing to their suspicion that the company had falsified an invoice in relation to the fuel.
AFI had approached the High Court and as a result, Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, SC, on March 15, 2021, ruled that the fuel ought to be released to AFI, because there was no lawful reason for its detention. Justice George also ordered the GRA and the GEA to pay AFI around $15 million, representing costs for storing the fuel and damages for their illegal detention of the fuel.
In relation to the revocation of the company’s fuel importation licence, the company had also sought the intervention of the High Court. Justice Franklyn Holder, after considering submissions from AFI and GEA, ruled that there was no basis in law for the revocation of the licence.
The GEA was ordered by the Judge to reinstate AFI’s licence.
In November 2015, AFI, which is located at Lot 16 Sublot ‘A’ Mudlot, Kingston, Georgetown, was granted a licence to import/wholesale, and store fuel by the GEA. The licence was valid until 2025.