Well-known JTV reporter Cathy Richards has been found guilty of knowingly submitting a forged document to the Department of Labour and Workforce Development when the agency was requiring extra paperwork for work-permit renewals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Her colleague Hitesh Yadram, a JTV production assistant who was tried alongside Ms. Richards, was found not guilty of two counts of the same crime.
An all-female jury delivered the unanimous verdicts on Tuesday in the High Court following a four-week trial before Justice Angelica Teelucksingh.
The trial hinged largely on whether the defendants knew that documents they submitted to the department were forged.
Prosecutor Tracy Vidale argued that they did — and that they therefore intended to defraud the agency.
But attorney Stephen Daniels, who represented both defendants, built his defence around their claim that they believed the documents to be genuine.
Forged SSB certificate
Ms. Richards was charged with one count of uttering a forged document on June 7, 2021, when she submitted a fake Social Security Board certificate of earnings as part of her work-permit renewal process.
Under a system that has since been discontinued, such certificates from the SSB and National Health Insurance were required for renewal applications during the Covid-19 pandemic beginning in 2020 and continuing into 2021.
When interviewed by labour officials and later by the police, Ms. Richards claimed she was not aware that the document had been forged, according to the Crown’s evidence.
The jury was shown a video of her police interview, during which she said she collected certificates of earnings from the SSB for herself and Mr. Yadram.
She also told police that she checked the documents to see which one had her name on it, but she did not review hers carefully before submitting it the same day that she picked it up.
When the police interviewer asked her to scrutinise the document closely, Ms. Richards acknowledged that she could see discrepancies and agreed that it was forged.
However, she consistently denied that she knew of the forgery before submitting it.
During the trial, Mr. Daniels maintained that she had an “honest and reasonable but mistaken belief ” that the document was genuine.
Therefore, he argued, she had no intention to deceive or defraud the labour department.
Yadram’s case
Mr. Yadram was charged with two counts of uttering a forged document — one in January 2021 and one in July 2021 — in connection with separate SSB certificates of earnings submitted as part of consecutive work-permit renewal applications.
Like Ms. Richards, he told police in a videotaped interview shown to the jury that he did not look closely at the documents before submitting them, but when asked to scrutinise them during the interview he acknowledged that they were fake.
However, he told police he did not know they were forged when he submitted them.
Therefore, as with Ms. Richards, Mr. Daniels argued that Mr. Yadram had an “honest and reasonable but mistaken belief ” that the documents were genuine — and thus he did not intend to deceive or defraud the agency.
Mr. Yadram also said in the police interview that he received the certificates in question from Ms. Richards.
Though he had previously picked up his own certificates of earnings from the SSB, he said, he submitted the documents he received from Ms. Richards instead because he believed those documents to be “updated” versions.
Crown’s case
In building the crown’s case, Ms. Vidale relied on testimony from witnesses including employees of the SSB, NHI and labour department.
Prosecutors also tendered 18 documents into evidence, including the three forged certificates of earnings purporting to be from the SSB — one for Ms. Richards and two for Mr. Yadram.
An SSB employee, Lisa McIntosh Bobb, testified that the signatures on those three certificates were not hers, though in each case it looked similar.
Additionally, the word “certificate” was misspelled on the documents, jurors heard.
Deliberations
After deliberating for about three hours, the jury of nine women returned to deliver the verdicts.
Ms. Richards and Mr. Yadram sat expressionless as the verdicts were read aloud — not guilty on both counts against Mr. Yadram and guilty on the single count against Ms. Richards.
After the jury was dismissed and Mr. Yadram left the courtroom, Ms. Richards broke down in tears.
Her bail was extended pending her sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 26. The conditions of her bail remain the same as when she was granted bail in Magistrates’ Court previously.
The conditions include a $30,000 bail and requirements to surrender travel documents and check in at the Royal Virgin Islands Police Station every Tuesday.
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