Postal worker charged with cheque fraud

A SENIOR post office employee who is alleged to have cashed the pension cheques of 13 deceased pensioners, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges before Justice Mark Mohammed in the San Fernando High Court. Tara Sankersingh, 49, Postal Officer II, who was in charge of the Palo Seco Post Office in 1996, is facing a 13-count indictment for signing the names of the dead pensioners and cashing their pension cheques. She is also facing a charge of larceny of $4,395.10.

The offence is alleged to have been committed between December 3, 1996 and January 7, 1997. The judge and jury heard from senior State attorney Joan Honore-Paul, that Government auditors discovered 13 cashed cheques in the Post Office which were not correctly stamped. Some of them also did not have the ID card numbers of the persons named on the cheques. 

When the auditor questioned Sankersingh, she replied that the cheques belonged to elderly people whom she felt sorry for. When she was asked why some did not have the ID numbers of the pensioners, Sankersingh replied: “These cheques belonged to dead people.” One of the deceased pensioners was Rookmin Persad. When a police investigator visited Persad’s home, one of her children revealed that his mother used a thumb print to cash her pension cheque because she could not write. The State called former personnel manager of General Post Office Waziff Mohammed as a witness. Attorney Indra Ramoutar-Liverpool is representing Sankersingh. The trial continues today.