PRIYA LALL, a former ticketing agent at Muneshwer’s Travel Agency was slapped with three counts of fraud totalling some $600,000 when she made a court appearance last Friday.
The woman pleaded not guilty to all counts and was placed on bail in the sum of $300,000.
However, the circumstances leading up to Lall being charged by police for three counts of fraud are not resting well with her former company and persons whom she defrauded between August and September last year.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle Newspaper on Saturday, persons who claimed to have been defrauded questioned the reasoning behind Lall being charged with only three counts of fraud.
It was pointed out that the woman would have defrauded some 68 persons, making off with reportedly in excess of $19M.

The initial figure for the fraud was some $9 million but after her scheme was exposed, persons began coming forward to check on their ticket bookings and reservation for flights made with Lall and found out that all was not well with their transactions.
They had already paid their monies and that pushed the initial figure from $9 million to an additional US$46,000.

The Guyana Chronicle was told that after the issue first came up, the company had attempted to settle the matter out of court and have the young lady repay the sums which she had agreed to do, but the following day she fled the country.
The company was subsequently informed by the police detectives that Lall was blacklisted and that upon her arrival back in Guyana she would have been arrested promptly at the airport.

However, that did not happen as Lall managed to be re-enter Guyana some two weeks ago and was enjoying the fun and frolic of the Christmas season until she was arrested last week Tuesday at her West Ruimveldt home.

“Last week Saturday a passenger called us to say that Priya (Lall) was in the country because they came on the same flight, and he asked her about his money and she told him that she decided to come back into the country to clear her name and also repay the monies which the company said that she owed,” a representative of the company indicated to the Guyana Chronicle.

This publication understands that Lall only returned to Guyana as a result of the death of a close family member and her presence here was to attend that funeral.
It is being reported that after Lall was held by police, a confrontation was held on Thursday last between her and representatives of the company, where they both told their sides of the story.

Lall, reportedly in the presence of the police, told managers of the travel agency that she has no money to repay and that she would prefer to go to jail.
The company is contending that something seems to have gone wrong at the level of the police station, as out of 68 persons being defrauded by the young lady only three counts of fraud were read to her in court.

The Guyana Chronicle was able to confirm that although 68 persons made claims to the company that they were defrauded by Lall, not all of them provided statements to the police in relation to the matter.

“They said they will make contact with us on Friday and they also requested that we bring over back our files with the evidence of claims and that was done. We even had a statement from the company in relation to the matter and that was not tendered in the court based on what we were told,” a representative of the company explained.
The Guyana Chronicle was told that several persons who showed up at the police station to give statements in relation to the matter, became inpatient with the slothfulness at which the ranks were taking statements and left without doing so.

The company is hoping that in time for the next court appearance, the police would seek to make contact with as much victims as possible so that they can be properly facilitated and have their statements taken, so that the right amount of fraud can be made known in the court when the matter is called again.

The names of these persons were reportedly supplied to the police since last year but it is unclear if any proper arrangements were made to have these persons’ statements recorded, in an effort to make the investigation and case against the ex-employee stronger.