The $400-million Manchester Municipal Corporation fraud trial ended on Friday, May 15, 2020 with the conviction of main accused 35-year-old Sanja Elliott, the corporation's former deputy superintendent of road and works; his wife, Tashagaye Elliott Goulbourne; two former employees of the corporation, David Harris, secretary/manager and acting chief executive officer and Kendale Roberts, temporary works overseer; as well as Dwayne Sibblies, a former employee of Sanja Elliott.

He stated that, “sometimes you have the mayor or superintendent sending messages asking if payment will be made available for persons who work has been given out to…that the council is an autonomous body that decides how work is allocated in the parish but we in the accounts department have to ensure that sufficient funding is available in the bank account before payments are disbursed, as it is a breach of regulation to run an overdraft on a government bank account”.

[14] Firstly, there is no dispute that Mr Harris is not the sole signatory to the council's bank accounts or authorised officer to certify documents.

However, the Crown has provided the context within which Mr Harris signed the cheques that his signature appeared on, that is, him being a part of a conspiracy to defraud the council.

Given the amount claimed for securing Mr Sibblies' bail and having regard to the procedure to process bail at the parish court, isn't it more plausible that either a manager's cheque or the bank account would have been used as collateral?