Documents sent to Surrey address: Pandays’ hidden London account

The witness said after checking the records of Nat West Bank in London, she could find only one cheque in the name of Basdeo Panday.

However, she admitted under cross-examination that Oma Panday serviced the account in the name of Oma Devi Ramkissoon (her maiden name), and bank statements were sent to Flat eight, Tennison House, Stanley Road, Surrey, London, in the name of one Mrs M Mohammed.

Based on what Curtis-Wynne told the court, Special prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel said it was clear that the Pandays wanted to keep that account hidden from the Trinidad and Tobago authorities.

Panday is before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court charged with knowingly making a false declaration to the Integrity Commission by failing to declare his Nat West account at 16 Wimbledon Hill Road, London, for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999.

Cassel said Panday failed to declare the London account with large sums of money going in and out in excess of his declared income. “When the account came to light, it did not show tiny sums of money, but large sums of money going in and out. It showed that at the end of 1997 to the end of 1999, the bank account increased by over 110,000 pounds sterling, that is more than $1 million.”

Cassel continued, “There were huge sums of money going in and out between a number of bank accounts, one of which was called the Diamond Reserve Account.

“Mr Newman’s documents showed an address of the joint account, not in Trinidad and Tobago, but in Surrey, England. It seems that the account was intended to be kept away from the Trinidad and Tobago authorities.”

Curtis-Wynne flew to Trinidad on Wednesday evening to testify. This was her third trip to Trinidad for the case. In 2002, she was fraud liaison officer with the Nat West Bank. As an employee of the bank, she had access to the records. She produced two documents , one of which was a joint account at the Nat West Bank, 16 Wimbledon Hill Road, London, in the name of Basdeo and Oma Panday. Curtis-Wynne said she obtained the records from the bank’s computer generated system for the period October 12, 1995 to December 20, 2001. She also produced a copy of a cheque, which had been drawn on the Pandays’ account. She pointed out that the original may have been destroyed. She said the cheque, dated March 31, 2001, was issued by Panday to one Dr Jenkins.

Cross-examined by lead defence attorney Alan Newman QC, Curtis-Wynne admitted a number of transactions at Nat West Bank.

Newman introduced a document which stated that an account was opened in 1993. The account was opened in the name of Oma Devi Ramkissoon after it was transferred from Waltham-on-Thames to Wimbledon. She could not say if another account was opened at Wimbledon in 1989 in Oma’s name.

Curtis-Wynne also admitted that a Crown Reserve deposit account in the name of Oma Ramkissoon was opened. That was later changed to a Diamond Reserve account. She said a Diamond Reserve statement dated January 1996 was sent to Oma at 105 Tarouba Road, Marabella.

Another current account statement at a bank in Hammersmith, London, in the name of Oma Ramkissoon was sent to the address in Surrey.

NEWMAN: “You produced one cheque signed by Basdeo Panday. Tell me if I am right, there was an account in Wimbledon in 1989 in the name of Oma Devi Ramkissoon which was changed to a joint account in 1993. Over the last 17 years, you have been able to
find only one document signed by Basdeo Panday?”

WITNESS: “Yes.”

NEWMAN: “Can you say if there was another cheque signed by Mr Panday?”

WITNESS: “The cheque I produced was the only one I was able to provide. I tried to find out if there were other cheques.”

Panday will make his defence today.