Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 15/Aug 20:05

San Fernando lawyer to stand trial on fraud charges

A former state prosecutor was committed to stand trial after the High Court ruled there was sufficient evidence to proceed on charges of cheating the public revenue and uttering a forged document involving money towards stamp duties on land deeds. Ravi Gooljar, 66, appeared before Master Kimitria Gray at a sufficiency hearing on August 15 when he was committed to stand trial on the charges. The offences allegedly occurred on June 11, 2014, at the Registrar General’s Office, San Fernando. Special Prosecutor Evans Welch, legal consultant for the Board of Inland Revenue, advanced evidence alleging that Gooljar, an attorney with more than 35 years of legal practice, presented a deed of conveyance bearing a forged stamp duty stamp to the Registrar General’s Department. The document purportedly indicated an exemption from stamp duty, allegedly depriving the Board of Inland Revenue of $52,000 in payable fees. The matter will come up for hearing before Justice Gillian Scotland on October 28. The charges, filed by Criminal Tax Investigator Adesh Ramdeo of the Board of Inland Revenue, allege that Gooljar knowingly used a forged stamp purportedly issued by the BIR’s Stamp Duty Department to facilitate registration without payment. It also alleges that the property for which the deed was registered was undervalued, causing the BIR to be cheated of $52,000 in stamp duty. Gooljar was granted $300,000 bail with a surety. Gooljar is also facing similar High Court proceedings from a 2022 committal in the Port of Spain First Magistrate’s Court on unrelated BIR charges, which remain pending. In that matter, he was committed to stand trial on allegations of cheating the public revenue and uttering a forged document. The post San Fernando lawyer to stand trial on fraud charges appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.