Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Af­ter fraud­u­lent­ly fil­ing a claim to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) for a wid­ow's ben­e­fit, an Ari­ma house­wife was or­dered to re­pay $27,000 or serve six weeks' im­pris­on­ment.

Melv­ina St Lois, 48, along with Arnin Coop­er and Ru­pert Marchan, were found guilty on Wednes­day of de­fraud­ing NIB. The trio ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Gillian David in the Port-of-Spain First Court on Wednes­day. Spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Sean Caz­abon rep­re­sent­ed the NIB and was in­struct­ed by at­tor­ney Sho­ba Ja­mu­nar. St Lois, Coop­er, a 64-year old Curepe re­tiree, and 65-year old Marchan, a spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist leader of Ari­ma, were found guilty of fraud. The mat­ter arose out of claim sub­mit­ted by St Lois in Sep­tem­ber 2005 for wid­ow's ben­e­fit fol­low­ing the death of Al­bert Jack­son whom she al­leged was her com­mon-in-law hus­band.

An in­ves­ti­ga­tion was sub­se­quent­ly launched by the NIB and charges were laid against the trio for know­ing­ly sup­ply­ing false in­for­ma­tion for the pur­pose of a ben­e­fit. Coop­er and Marchan as­sist­ed by pro­vid­ing false statu­to­ry de­c­la­ra­tions. David or­dered St Lois to pay com­pen­sa­tion to the NIB in the sum of $27,000 or in de­fault she will serve six weeks in prison. She al­so was fined $800. Coop­er and Marchan were each or­dered to sign bonds in the sum of $8,000 to keep the peace and be of good be­hav­iour for two years.