30.6 C
Belize City
Thursday, March 28, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

2 charged for $186,526.65 Radisson forgery

Headline2 charged for $186,526.65 Radisson forgery

Justin West is believed to have absconded to USA

Late Friday evening, even after the court clerks had left for the day, Justin LaCroix, 24, an accountant, and Brian Myvett, 33, a computer technician, were charged with forgery, claiming upon a forged document and handling stolen goods, to a total value of $186,526.65.

The reason the duo had been arraigned so late was due to the amount of charges they each faced: LaCroix was charged with a total of 84 counts, while Myvett was charged with a total of 24 counts, which took the clerks all day to enter into their system.

LaCroix, Myvett and Justin West, for whom police have put out a wanted notice, are believed to be the individuals behind a tangled web of deception and thievery from the Radisson Fort George Hotel and Marina.

According to police, the CEO of the hotel reported that he noticed a rise in costs for their food and beverage department in their monthly financial statements during the months of January 2013 to September 2013. The CEO then ordered that an internal audit be done, and at the conclusion of that audit, it was discovered that 60 Belize Bank cheques had been generated by their payable accounts department.

That in itself was normal, but what wasn’t normal was that the cheques had been written out by inputting false invoice numbers of their suppliers into the system. Those 60 cheques amounted to a whopping $186,526.65.

Police were informed of the matter and after doing their own investigation, they charged LaCroix and Myvett.

When the two appeared in court, LaCroix was charged with 28 counts of forgery, 28 counts of uttering upon a false document and 28 counts of handling stolen goods, while Myvett was charged with 8 counts each of the same charges.

West, 26, who was working at the hotel as an accountant, was not brought to court because he cannot be found and is believed to have fled the country for the USA. A wanted poster with a colored picture of West was issued yesterday by police, with the hopes of locating him.

LaCroix and Myvett were granted bail of $15,000 each and a surety of the same amount, but due to the late hour of their arraignment, they had to spend the weekend in prison, but were able to meet their bail on Monday.

Both men are scheduled to appear back in court on January 6, 2014.

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International