Kingstown, St. Vincent - Twenty-four year old Lauren Leanne St. Louis of Grand Anse, St. George's, Grenada, was hauled before a St. Vincent court in Mid-December, charged with two counts of forgery and one count of theft.

St. Louis, who was employed with O.R. Sylvester & Co law firm in Kingstown, was charged with stealing four Scotia Bank Cheque leaves from the cheque book of Marcole Investment Ltd, the law firm's holding company. She was also charged for forging the signature of shareholder Nicole Sylvester and tendering the cheque as genuine to the Scotia Bank.

According to information received, St. Louis approached a senior employee and asked her for the key to the vault where the cheque books are kept.

She made the excuse that she wanted to get a CD with the Microsoft Publisher programme which was in the said vault.
Later, she practised duplicating Sylvester's signature on three cheque leaves, before carbon-copying one from a letter onto the fourth cheque.

She subsequently went to Scotia Bank where she tendered the cheque, with Sylvester's forged signature, made out for cash in the sum of $8,000. Reports say the bank's teller became suspicious when she observed the signature and when she noticed the cheque was not endorsed at the back.

As a result, she referred the cheque to a supervisor who informed St. Louis that the bank would have to contact Sylvester. But St. Louis protested saying Sylvester was not in the office and the money was needed to pay workers who anxiously wanted to go shopping for the Christmas season.

Reports also say that after her pleading failed at the bank, St Louis went back to her office and thwarted efforts by bank personnel to reach Sylvester by telephone.
They eventually succeeded in informing Sylvester of the incident by calling her mother's home and asking her to relay a message to her daughter.
Sources say after Sylvester became aware of the incident, she checked the cheque books and discovered four cheques were missing. She then alerted the police who questioned St.Louis.

During investigations, St. Louis admitted to the crime and took the police to her home in Gomea where they retrieved the three cheques from a disposed KFC box.

When she appeared before Senior Magistrate Carl Joseph at the Kingstown Magisterial court, St.Louis pleaded guilty to the theft of the cheques.

The other two forgery charges were indictable offences which were to be heard before a judge and jury.
However, the virtual complainant, Nicole Sylvester in consultation with the prosecutor, indicated to the court that she is willing to withdraw the forgery charges if St. Louis would be deported.

As a result, St. Louis was fined $200.00 for the theft and the Senior Magistrate recommended that she be deported.
After her fine was paid, St.Louis was deported back to Grenada. St Louis was represented in court by Ronald Marks.

(Reproduced from the Searchlight newspaper of St. Vincent & the Grenadines)