A Bar­rack­pore busi­ness­man ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Kim­i­tria Gray at the San Fer­nan­do High Court on Mon­day af­ter be­ing charged with fraud­u­lent con­ver­sion in the sum of $61,000 in re­la­tion to a down pay­ment for an im­port­ed Nis­san pan­el van that was nev­er de­liv­ered.

Ste­fon Ra­bindru­nauth, 33, was grant­ed bail with sure­ty in the amount of $61,000 and is sched­uled to re­turn to court on 14th Jan­u­ary 2025.

The charge stems from an in­ci­dent where the vic­tim al­leged­ly paid Ra­bindru­nauth, the own­er of an au­to busi­ness, a down pay­ment of $61,000 via cheque. This pay­ment was made for the pur­chase and im­por­ta­tion of a Nis­san pan­el van val­ued at $122,000, with de­liv­ery sched­uled for 3rd Jan­u­ary 2021. How­ev­er, the ve­hi­cle was nev­er de­liv­ered, and Ra­bindru­nauth failed to re­turn the down pay­ment de­spite re­peat­ed at­tempts to re­cov­er it.

On Sat­ur­day, 7th De­cem­ber 2024, an op­er­a­tion co­or­di­nat­ed by of­fi­cers from the Bar­rack­pore Po­lice Sta­tion and the Fraud Squad San Fer­nan­do Of­fice led to Ra­bindru­nauth's ar­rest in the South West­ern Di­vi­sion. He was for­mal­ly charged with the of­fence.