By LAMECH
JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@
tribunemedia.net
A FORMER civil servant appeared in Magistrate’s Court yesterday accused of theft and fraud of more than $35,000 of public funds in a near six-year span.
Keisha Dean, 44, of Pioneer’s Loop, Grand Bahama stood before Magistrate Andrew Forbes facing 48 combined counts of stealing by reason of employment and falsification of accounts regarding the National Insurance Board (NIB) contributions of 24 persons in Bimini between October 2009 and March of this year.
Police prosecutors alleged that Dean, employed as a clerk at the Bailey Town NIB branch in Bimini, falsified entries into NIB’s records, purporting to show that the 24 individuals paid a combined $35,044.58 in contributions.
It is further alleged that she stole that same amount from NIB during the mentioned period, which she was allegedly able to access because of her position.
Dean was not allowed to enter a plea to the four dozen charges due to a recently amended law that requires the court to hold a preliminary inquiry in matters where charges are filed beyond the statute of limitations.
The preliminary inquiry, the magistrate told Dean, will allow the court to determine if there is sufficient evidence for the matter to be tried in the Supreme Court.
The preliminary proceedings are scheduled to begin on November 20.
The accused was granted $30,000 bail with two suretors and reporting conditions at the Central Police Station in Grand Bahama.
If convicted at trial in the Supreme Court, Dean would face up to seven years imprisonment for the falsification charge and 10 years for stealing by reason of employment.
She has retained lawyer Halson Moultrie to defend her.
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