Woman on trial for misusing K61,000

A WAIGANI Committal Court magistrate yesterday praised the “professional” work of two female police investigating officers for “a job well done”.
Their investigation has led to his court yesterday to commit a Manus woman to stand trial at the National Court.
The woman has been charged with a total of 77 counts of misappropriating more than K61,000.
Magistrate Fred Tomo told the accused Francesca Simon, 32, from Mouk village, Manus, that the court had found there was sufficient evidence to commit her to the National Court for trial.
While extending her K500 bail, Tomo ordered Simon to appear at the higher court on Dec 6, for criminal listing hearing that would set a definite date for her matter to be trialed and determined.
“Having read the witness statements and your own admission to all of the charges in the course of your record of interviews, the only option open now, is for the court to have you committed to stand trial.
“There is little need to deal with each charge separately because your method of operation or modus operandi is the same in each count, although, the amount, time and clients differentiated,” Tomo told Simon while handing down his ruling yesterday morning.
Simon’s charges of 77 counts included 38 counts of forgery, another 38 counts of falsely uttering documents and also for “dishonestly applying K61,397.50 to yourself the property of Garamut Enterprises”.
The charges of forgery contravened section 462 of the Criminal Code Act (CCA) while “falsely uttering documents” contravened section 463 of the CCA and dishonest application of the monies contravened section 383A (1)(a) of the CCA.
These alleged offences were committed while Simon was employed by Garamut Enterprises as a clerk between Jan 6 and  Sept 24 last year.