Ex-post mistress: I was shocked, scared

FORMER acting post-mistress Gloria Ramnarine wept before the jury yesterday as she spoke of her shock on opening a safe at the Rio Claro Post Office and not finding some $71,500 that had been stored there. Ramnarine was brought to tears as she told the court, “I was shocked. I couldn’t think. I started to tremble. I was totally confused. I was shocked, scared. I was everything. It was a bad moment for me.” The former post-mistress opted to take the witness stand in the San Fernando Second Criminal Assizes where she is on trial for allegedly stealing some $145,703.50 while in charge of the southern postal branch. Ramnarine said she noticed the money missing on Monday, February 3, 1997, when she went to work early to complete the balancing and the cash count, since the process had not been completed on the Friday before. She also needed to update the account books since she was supposed to hand over duties to another post-mistress.

“The money was in sections, like wads, with the same denominations together,” she said, describing how the money was kept in the drawers of the safe. Ramnarine explained she and her co-worker, Muriel Breton-Charles, had taken the decision to move the money to the drawers at the bottom of the safe, after a robbery at a branch of Republic Bank located opposite to the Rio Claro Post Office. The decision took effect in early December 1996. The accused had the keys to the safe, while Breton-Charles had the keys to a padlocked bar that was put across the safe. However, Ramnarine left Breton-Charles in charge of her keys on January 30 when she left work early to attend a funeral in Chaguanas, and then went to a calypso tent. “I was going to a party and I did not want to walk with all my keys,” she explained. Breton-Charles returned the keys at around 1.30 am when they returned from the calypso tent.

Ramnarine told the court she expected an audit to be conducted on the accounts of the Rio Claro Post Office after two previous attempts in November and December 1996 had been unsuccessful. On February 3, 1997, when she noticed the money missing, the accused said she became very scared. “I just wanted to leave. I went outside to get a cup of coffee. I intended to come back, but I did not.” She said she did not return to the postal branch until 11 days later, because she was “mentally traumatised.” Ramnarine admitted to the court that in a telephone conversation with her supervisor, Fyzal Hosein, she cried as she told him she was trying to raise the money to replace the missing cash, “because she felt morally responsible for the loss.” The case continues on Monday when the accused is expected to be cross-examined by State prosecutor Narissa Ramsundar. The accused is represented by Ian Stuart Brook and Nizam Mohammed.