A police constable is among four people charged with land fraud this week by officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB).
PC Curtis Pierre, 50, last attached to the Central Division and Sandy Dhanasser Pierre, 38, of Cunupia were jointly charged with three counts of possession of forged documents.
PC Pierre was also charged with three counts of fraudulently causing the acceptance of valuable security.
Meanwhile, PC Pierre, Germaine Cassandra Pierre, 48, of Cunupia and Chez Brathwaite, 46, of Chaguanas, were charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud.
Furthermore, PC Pierre and Brathwaite were jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud, and PC Pierre, Brathwaite and Dhanasser-Pierre were jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud.
Cassandra-Pierre and Dhanasser-Pierre were granted bail with surety by a Justice of the Peace in the sum of $150,000 and were ordered to appear before an Arima Magistrate on November 3.
PC Pierre was remanded into custody on outstanding warrants.
PC Pierre and Brathwaite, who was also remanded into custody, are scheduled to appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate this Wednesday.
Reports indicate that in July, personnel attached to the Land Management Division of the Commissioner of State Lands Office discovered three fraudulent standard agricultural leases for 90 acres of State lands purportedly leased to three people.
It was also discovered that the leases were fraudulently registered at the Registrar General Office of Trinidad and Tobago on October 12.
Several signatures, inclusive of the acting Commissioner of State Lands and attorneys attached to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, were all found to be forged.
A report was made to the police and officers of the ACIB conducted extensive and painstaking enquiries supervised by Snr Supt Dennis Knutt and Supt Singh between July and October.
Search warrants were executed at the homes of four people which led to the seizure of certified copies of forged standard agricultural leases.
Additionally, $146,200 was found and seized at the home of two of the suspects.
It is currently the subject of a Financial Investigations Bureau enquiry.
Charges were laid against the four accused by WPC Loney-Phillip of the ACIB.
Five people have now been charged with land fraud in the past month.
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