Prosecution amends CTSL manager’s fraud charges

By GEORGINA KOREI
A WAIGANI committal court has granted an application by prosecution to amend uttering charges against Comrade Trustee Service Ltd (CTSL) statutory manager Sitiveni Weleilakeba.
Weleilakeba, from Fiji, was charged with dishonestly using more than K665,000 of the trustee’s funds.
His additional charges were forgery and fraudulently uttering.
Magistrate Paul Puri Nii said: “The prosecution can proceed to change the charge from Section 463 (1) to subsection (2) but it does not affect the substantive charge.”
Weleilakeba’s lawyer Philip Wariniki argued that the prosecution did not issue a copy of the notice of motion filed to amend the information of the charge to the defence.
The defence in its submission asked the court to dismiss the charges as evidence provided by the witnesses were all from plain jealousy of Weleilakeba’s position.
Defence submissions also stated that Weleilakeba did not have any intention of stealing any tax funds as the money was under his jurisdiction as the finance manager.
The defence also submitted that there were no grounds of sufficient evidence to commit the accused to stand for a trial so all the charges should be dismissed.
However, Wariniki asked if the court could allow Weleilakeba to travel to Fiji before his ruling date so he could secure some funds.
Magistrate Nii said that this could be a tough battle for him to file an application to grant leave when his passport was held by the court.
“It can be a very complicated process for you to file an application for the court to grant leave but then his passport is not in his possession, which is another process involved for you to take to ask the court to release his passport,” he told Wariniki.
Police alleged that last July 29, Weleilakeba forged a payslip from the CTSL to himself showing that he was receiving pay as an employee at CTSL and paid taxes to the PNG Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) and sent it to the Fiji tax office.
Police further alleged that Weleilakeba’s letter to the Fijian tax office regarding his tax status in PNG was misleading.
It was alleged that in December, Weleilakeba acting as the statutory manager for CTSL, directed a payment of K665,482.45 from CTSL’s management account for his personal income liability which covered the period from January to November, 2021. Police alleged that Weleilakeba had not paid his taxes to IRC under his first two contracts until Dec 1, 2021. The case was adjourned to Oct 20 for ruling.