A Diego Mar­tin liquor mart di­rec­tor was grant­ed $70,000 bail with a sure­ty by a Jus­tice of the Peace on three counts of ob­tain­ing prop­er­ty by use of dis­hon­oured cheques to­tal­ing $86,137.71.

Frank Mar­tineau, 72, Cameron Road, Pe­tit Val­ley, was charged with the of­fences by WPC Gowrie of the Fraud Squad fol­low­ing a po­lice re­port in which de­tec­tives were told that a man al­leged­ly ten­dered three cheques to a beer com­pa­ny for pay­ments for sup­plies dur­ing De­cem­ber 7 to 17, 2021.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, the cheques rep­re­sent­ed three pay­ments of $37,098.23, $24,709.55 and $24,329.93.

The beer com­pa­ny at­tempt­ed to have the di­rec­tor ho­n­our the pay­ments how­ev­er that proved fu­tile.

On De­cem­ber 15, af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with Supt Reuben and Le­gal Of­fi­cer, Sgt Bas­sarath, WPC Gowrie charged the ac­cused with three counts of ob­tain­ing prop­er­ty by use of dis­hon­oured cheques to­talling $86,137.71.

The sus­pect was ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the St James Po­lice Sta­tion, where he was grant­ed bail to cov­er all charges on the con­di­tion that he ap­pear vir­tu­al­ly at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court on Jan­u­ary 30, 2023.