BSP duo committed

National, Normal
Source:

By ILA PAILAEA

THE Waigani Committal Court has committed two Bank South Pacific (BSP) senior executives to stand trial at the National Court on charges of conspiring to defeat the course of justice.
Magistrate Lawrence Kangwia committed John Maddison and Robin Flemming to stand trial, saying there was sufficient evidence of conspiracy.
“In this instance, the court conducted a preliminary hearing, a process designed to screen cases.
“The court forms a bona fide opinion on the evidence before it to decide whether there is a prima facie case to commit the defendants to stand trial,” he said.
“The main issue here is the evidence offered by the prosecution, whether it is sufficient to commit the defendants to stand trial on the charge of conspiring to defeat the course of justice contrary to section 128(1) of the Criminal Code.”
Kangwia referred to the defendants’ submission that various documentary evidence in the police hand-up brief were inadmissible evidence, including the Supreme Court judgment which was irrelevant for the hand-up brief.
On this he commented that “any document that was not compliant with Evidence Act can be corrected and admitted as evidence.”
“Whether there was conspiracy between the defendants and others, the totally of evidence is that there is an existing Supreme Court decision for Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd (MVIL) to pay the judgment debtor Yama Security Services Limited(YSSL), but MVIL paid the money to Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu, never a change to the court order. So that’s the evidence in there.
“Conspiracy is not limited to the conduct between an individual and another individual, but can be between an individual and several others also.
“I find there is prima facie evidence on the totally of evidence to make orders for the defendants to stand trial.
“However the evidence needs to be determined and the proper venue for that is the National Court.”
 The case is set for trial next Monday.
The ‘conspiracy to defeat the course of justice’ case against the two men relate to a Supreme Court order for MVIL to pay about K7,653,115.85 to YSSL.
This was not done instead the defendants are alleged to have conspired with others by way of writing or endorsing certain documents to defy the Supreme Court order, arranging to divert the money to Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu as an agent of BSP.