Peter Sangster, a Jamaican businessman who is accused of forging the signature of former Jamaican prime minister Portia Simpson Miller on a waiver to defraud his employer of US$750,000, is scheduled to return to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on October 31.
Sir Donald Sangster’s grand nephew
Peter Sangster, the 47-year-old grand-nephew of late former prime minister, Sir Donald Sangster, was arrested last February and charged with forgery, uttering forged documents and obtaining money by false pretense.
Bail extended
His bail was extended by Parish Judge Simone Wolfe Reece after the prosecutor informed the court that a report from the Cybercrime Forensic Unit was still outstanding.
Sangster, who was the managing director of Jamus Communications Limited, between January 2011 and August 2013, is accused of soliciting and obtaining over US$750,000 from the chairman of the company with the promise of providing a waiver of the levy owed by the company to the Universal Service Fund (USF).
Sought US$600,000 for waiver
Peter Sangster is alleged to have told the company’s chairman that he could get a waiver for the company. To obtain the waiver Sangster said it would cost US$600,000 to activate it, but the figure was negotiated down to US$20,000.
Peter Sangster also told the chairman that he would also be required to cover certain costs associated with the provision of the waiver. These costs included legal and customs fees.
The court heard that the chairman subsequently wired the money to Sangster’s account, but it was later discovered that the waiver with Prime Minister Simpson Miller signature was fraudulent after the chairman’s attorney wrote a letter to the USF.
The Right Honorable Sir Donald Sangster, the grand-uncle of the accused, was the second Prime Minister of Jamaica, and the country’s first elected Prime Minister who succeeded Sir Alexander Bustamante following Independence, was elected to office on February 23,1967. Sir Donald died on April 11, 1967, shortly after being installed. He suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage.
