BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas yesterday morning (June 14) dismissed the no case submission by his defence counsel [Anthony Johnson], Newrish Nital took the stand to prove his innocence of the charges laid against him.
Nital, who was formally arrested on Friday, August 29, 2008, is facing charges of three counts of fraud allegedly committed on April 1, 2 and 4, 2008.
The Mathematics teacher and law student, on those dates, allegedly presented several United States Postal Service International Postal Money Orders to a cashier at a local post office with intent to defraud.
The three money orders totaled EC$9 275.
During his testimony, Nital said he was informed of a plan by the police to have him embarrassed.
He testified in court for almost four hours yesterday, where he said that one evening when he arrived home he received an email from an individual from a “carib singles website” of which he is a member.
He said the contents of the email advertised a potential job and that the person was doing research on tropical plants, which caught his attention because his daughter suffered from asthma and his parents rely heavily on prescription pills.
Nital also mentioned that he sent off an application to study medicine at the American Institute of Holistic Theology and said that as a chemist he thought it was a course he could pursue as a benefit to his fellow countrymen “who were yearning to escape side effects of prescription drugs”.
The accused said that he inquired more of the man and found out that he was a retired army general named Rodney Welsh, who worked for a charitable organisation called World Barriers.
The Mathematics teacher explained that during that time he was seeking sponsorship for his television show ‘Ask Nital’, which airs on ZIZ, because those he had were “drying up”.
Nital said Welsh asked him to submit a proposal, which he did.
He told the court that the proposal was the same one he had previously submitted to Antonio Maynard, Secretary-General for the UNESCO's National Commission in St. Kitts and Nevis and Starret Greene, OAS Representative, St. Kitts and Nevis.
The accused also told the court he received a response that the organisation was interested in making contributions to the project and a number of suggestions were made.
Nital explained that he held further discussions with Welsh, which were conducive to setting up a sub-branch of his organisation in St. Kitts.
Nital further explained that he had to prove to Welsh that he was trustworthy and an honest man before any deals could have been made.
He told the court that an agreement was made whereby Welsh would have sent money to him and he (Nital) was directed to take 10 percent for himself and the remainder had to be sent back to Welsh.
Nital said that since then he had received five money orders of US$700 each.
He said he had never dealt with money orders before and went to the only bank he uses, which is Royal Bank of Canada, to have them cashed and had to follow instructions of a “hypothetical situation”.
Nital said he was told by the cashier that the bank has a holding period of 31 days, because they were foreign cheques and a verification process had to be completed before they were cashed.
The accused said he wanted the contributions for his show to prevent ZIZ from stopping the programme, especially since it was around exam time.
He said the 30-day wait would have taken too long and he did not have the money on his personal account.
Nital testified that he was told by the bank teller about the post office, where he presented five cheques to the cashier who told him that only one or two cheques were permitted to be cashed per day.
Nital said he was later informed that the cheques were a scam and he told the person to immediately contact the police and post office because he had cashed some from the same organisation.
The accused told the court that sometime later he was contacted by Constable Alexis George of the Criminal Investigation Department, who indicated that he wanted him to go to the Basseterre Police Station and assist them with information with respect to the money orders.
Nital said he went to the police immediately and took a copy of all correspondents and the project proposal, and he and George spoke for a reasonable length of time.
He said George told him about ‘Interpol’ which he later found out it was International Policing and he wanted information to help them catch up with the persons and have the government funds recovered.
Nital said he told the police he would do whatever he could to assist.
He however noted that it was around that time he was informed of a plan by the police to have him embarrassed.
Nital said he spoke to the Police Commissioner about the situation and was advised to make a payment to the post office, where he went and made a payment of EC$6 000.
Nital said several days after making the payment, seven police officers showed up at his home and informed him that they were there to arrest him.
He said he asked them for the chief of police because the actions seemed contrary to what was agreed to, but was told that his arrest was a result of his case being reviewed by the Commissioner of Police with responsibility for Crime.
After giving his evidence, Nital was cross-examined by Wilkin who queried if he did not find it strange that he was sent an email from the site.
Wilkin also asked Nital if he was familiar with google.com where he could have done a research on Welsh and his company, to which he replied in the negative.
The prosecutor then admonished Nital, saying how could he assist a man in establishing a branch in St. Kitts, hire about 30 people and hardly knew anything about him.
Nital told the court that he had made checks on the man in his own way.
Wilkin also suggested to Nital that he made up the names of the man and the company and knew that the money orders were counterfeit.
Nital said he did not know that they were.
The jury foreman then asked Nital if emails or receipts were presented to the police, to which he said that emails were given bur was not sure about the receipts.
The case continues today with closing arguments of the prosecution and the defence counsel as well as the summary of His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas.
