A FORMER employee of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) was on Wednesday freed of an alleged $2M gold heist due to insufficient evidence from the prosecution.
Ronald Singh, 30, of Lot 161 Hibiscus Avenue ‘AA’ Eccles, East Bank Demerara, had the simple larceny charge dismissed against him by city Magistrate Judy Latchman after almost eight months before the court.

Singh was accused of stealing eight ounces, nine grams of gold worth $2,153,034 from the GGB on February 19, last, at Brickdam, Georgetown.
The defendant’s lawyer George Thomas during his submission stated that the prosecution’s case had no merit and failed to present any evidence against his client.
According to Thomas, the prosecution failed to lead any evidence purporting to show who was the owner of the gold or any other evidence that the gold found was indeed the stolen item.
However, prosecutor Shawn Gonzales protested strongly for the magistrate to believe his case.

Gonzales explained that on the day of the crime the accused was a lab technician at the GGB laboratory in charge of handing the gold and transferring it over to another co-worker. However, at the end of his shift upon checking the log there were discrepancies
The manager of the GGB noticed that a bar of gold was missing from the laboratory and summoned police and based upon an investigation, Singh was arrested after he told the ranks that the gold was in his bag.

The magistrate grilled the prosecutor on the grounds that the gold could have been the property of anyone, since it had no special markings to identity it, neither was the gold found in the defendant’s actual possession.
“The prosecution argued that his case was as good as gold, but was proven by the defence counsel that the case was as fragile as glass,” Magistrate Latchman said during her ruling.
The magistrate indicated to Singh that he would not be required to lead a defence, since his case was dismissed.