By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
A TOP financial officer at a local insurance company yesterday recounted how a former employee admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from the company after officials found several compromised deposit bags in her desk.
Ricardo Underwood, chief financial officer at JS Johnson & Company Ltd, recalled the remarks after being called to the witness stand in the trial of 34-year-old Crystal Knowles.
Knowles, a former JS Johnson employee, faces several counts of stealing by reason of employment, falsification of accounts and money laundering.
The charges stem from allegations that she stole $83,430 while serving as a cash supervisor for the insurance company between February and March 2020.
The 34-year-old has denied the offences.
Mr Underwood told the court how he became suspicious of Knowles after a client alerted him to certain information.
The financial officer said it was this information that led him to start investigating transactions made by Knowles and other employees.
Mr Underwood told the court after noticing a few irregularities, he called the accused into a meeting and claimed Knowles told him she would correct the issues.
However, shortly after the meeting, the witness said he received a concerning email from auditors concerning late deposits being made to the bank from the insurance company.
“As a result of that, I got very curious because our practice is to put monies that we collect in the bank the next day so that caused me to get really curious and I went looking for the company deposit register,” the witness told the court.
Mr Underwood said he was able to confirm the late payments after reviewing the company’s deposit register.
The witness said during that time, he observed several other irregularities, including the timeframe taken to transfer the funds into the bank after collection which he said were “abnormally long”.
Mr Underwood said while questioning Knowles, she claimed she was just following the directions of account executives. In response, he said he told her “under no circumstances” should deposits be delayed.
Mr Underwood then noted his suspicions were further aroused after another staff member approached him and gave him certain information.
This, he added, led to a search being conducted of all cash supervisors’ desks.
Bags
The witness said nothing was found in staff members’ desks with the exception of Knowles, where some six unsealed and ripped deposit bags were found inside her desk.
Cash in the amount of $2,900 was also discovered, he said, adding it was not normal practice for employees to hold company funds.
Mr Underwood said further investigations revealed that some $39,500 was missing from the bags in the first instance.
The court later heard that a total of $83,000 was discovered to be missing after officials conducted further enquiries.
Asked if he ever spoke with Knowles after discovering the deposit bags, the witness said he did and claimed that she owned up to stealing over $39,000 to him and other company officials.
He also claimed that the accused seemed very calm during the meeting.
“She said her brother had medical expenses and she was trying to pay them off,” he added.
After police action was requested, Mr Underwood told the court that officers tried to persuade the company to make a settlement with the accused.
He said officials started to draft an agreement with her to reimburse the company but later decided against it. Asked if the accused signed the agreement, the witness said she did.
However, Mr Underwood was stopped from giving further evidence after defence attorney Wendawn Miller-Frazer raised objections to his testimony regarding the agreement and other claims.
Mrs Miller-Frazer also requested that certain documents be provided to the court to assist her with cross-examination of the witness.
As a result, the case was adjourned to April 6. Sgt Vernon Pyfrom is prosecuting the case.
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