THE simple larceny charge against former Guyana Power and Light (GPL) board director, Carvil Duncan was dismissed on Wednesday by City Magistrate Leron Daly, but he remains indicted for conspiracy to commit fraud.Duncan was acquitted for stealing $984,900 belonging to GPL on March 31, 2015 after it was ruled that a prima facie case had not been established against him for the offence. The magistrate upheld a no case submission made by Duncan’s attorney Glen Hanoman. During his ruling the magistrate dismissed the charge on the ground that the prosecution’s witnesses failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the elements of the offence.

The testimony of former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who had testified during the trial was thrown out since the evidence amounted to ‘hear-say’ and also the exhibit ‘E’ which was the tendered Cabinet decision was void since a photocopy was submitted and not the original. Duncan was in smiles after hearing the magistrate’s decision attempted to quickly exit the courtroom but his happiness was short-lived when Police Prosecutor, Bharat Mangru reminded the court that the accused still had the $27M conspiracy charge against him.

The former Director at GPL had forgotten the charge which stated that between May 7 and May 8, 2015 at Georgetown, Duncan conspired with former Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Aeshwar Deonarine to steal the sum of $27,757,500, property of the company.

His attorney, quickly attempted to clear the air but was informed by the prosecutor that the matters were separate from each other and not jointly charged.

The magistrate after hearing Mangru’s argument confirmed his claims that Duncan still had the $27M conspiracy charge pending in court.

The Magistrate informed Duncan that he was only freed from the larceny charge and will face trial for the other offence on January 4, 2017.

In January Duncan was charged and placed on $1M bail while the whereabouts of Deonarine is still yet unknown.

The Government had asked the police to investigate the two senior officials in July, 2015. It was reported that the men paid themselves almost $29M without authorisation.

In light of investigations, Deonarine was sent on administrative leave and had fled the jurisdiction.

The discoveries of the suspicious transfers were made by independent auditors who were probing the PetroCaribe Fund, which hold proceeds of oil shipments taken from neighbouring Venezuela.

It was while tracking payments to GPL that auditors unearthed the strange transactions. Deonarine, who had been the DCEO responsible for administration had reportedly wanted to receive the same level of pay as the then DCEO (Technical), Colin Welch, but his approaches to the Board of Directors were rebuffed. He had reportedly offered to repay the money but GPL was supposed to have waited until it was transferred from his US bank account.