The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER College of The Bahamas employee Chimeka Gibbs refused to answer certain questions relating to the heart of allegations she stole over $500,000 from the college over seven years during her initial interviews with police in November of 2015, Supreme Court jurors heard.

Police Sergeant Donald Rolle, attached to the Business Crime Section of the Central Detective Unit (CDU), said while Gibbs acknowledged her employment at COB, her responsibilities at the college and even her monthly pay, she declined to comment when he questioned her about her numerous bank accounts or her allegedly altering the COB payroll to inflate her salary since 2011.

According to Sgt Rolle, Gibbs was interviewed at CDU on two separate occasions, once on November 12, 2015 in the presence of her then-attorney Terrell Butler after being arrested by himself and another officer at COB, and again on May 27, 2016 as a result of him further investigating the matter.

Sgt Rolle’s testimony was that on November 12, 2015, after arriving to work sometime after 9am, he received a complaint from COB. As a result, he with Sgt Dwayne Delancey, went to COB, where they met and spoke with the institution’s head of security and former assistant commissioner of police, Glenn Miller.

Mr Miller gave them certain information and directed them to an office where they met Marlo Murphy-Braynen, COB’s vice-president of finance. They also met with Renee Mayers, COB’s associate vice-president of human resources, subsequent to which they received certain information.

Sgt Rolle said they also got certain documents from Ms Braynen in the form of emails and other COB documents. He said they also recorded a statement from her.

Later that day, around 1pm, he and Sgt Delancy were escorted back to Mr Miller’s office, where they again spoke with him in Ms Mayer’s presence. At that time, a woman was pointed out to him, who they consequently approached. That woman identified herself as Chimeka Gibbs and said she worked at the college.

Sgt Rolle said based on the information he had at the time, he cautioned and arrested Gibbs in relation to stealing by reason of her employment. Sgt Rolle said during that time, Sgt Delancey asked Gibbs if she understood what was happening, to which she replied “yes”. Sgt Rolle also said Gibbs said she already told COB officials she had taken funds for the months of September and October of that year, and that she also offered COB to repay those funds.

Nonetheless, he said Gibbs was arrested and officially booked in at the Grove Police Station before being taken to CDU.

Sometime around 4.52pm that same day, Sgt Rolle said he, woman reserve Corporal 918 Adderley and Gibbs went to the interview suite at CDU, where he conducted an interview of Gibbs in the presence of Ms Butler, her lawyer. Sgt Rolle said during the interview, Gibbs acknowledged that she had been attached to the human resources section at COB for some 14 years, and that her position at the time of the interview was human resources assistant I.

Sgt Rolle said she also acknowledged that her responsibilities were to process COB’s payroll. According to Sgt Rolle, Gibbs said she maintained the payroll file, and would email those files to persons in COB’s finance department for approval.

Once approval was given, her responsibility was to email payroll files to officials from the Bank of The Bahamas (BOB) who would further process them.

According to Sgt Rolle, Gibbs said the email she used was chimeka.gibbs@cob.edu.bs. He said she also acknowledged in most instances the emails would be sent to Asteen Clarke from BOB.

During the interview, Sgt Rolle said he also questioned Gibbs about her salary at the time, which she acknowledged was $2,394 a month. However, when he asked her if she had accounts at Scotiabank, First Caribbean, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Commonwealth Bank, she declined to answer.

Sgt Rolle said Gibbs also declined to comment when he suggested that she would alter the COB payroll file in order to inflate her salary, and that she had been practising that behaviour of increasing her salary since 2011.

Sgt Rolle said Gibbs also declined to read over and sign the record of interview. However, he said he signed the record of interview along with Cpl Adderley.

On November 14, 2015, Sgt Rolle said acting on instructions, he released Gibbs from custody pending further investigations.

Subsequent to her release, Sgt Rolle said he conducted further investigations into the matter, subsequently speaking to COB officials and with Ms Mayers, whom he said gave him 90 plus copies of Gibbs’ monthly salary information concerning the period 2008 to 2015.

Sgt Rolle said he also visited Scotiabank, FCIB, RBC and Commonwealth Bank where he received copies of the account information and statements. Among those documents were copies of identification consistent with Gibbs, he said.

As a result of further investigations, on May 27, 2016, while at CDU, he re-arrested Gibbs in relation to stealing by reason of employment.

Shortly after 1pm on that date, Sgt Rolle said he went to the interview suite with woman Police Sergeant Gibson and Gibbs, where he conducted another interview in connection with the matter.

Sgt Rolle said during that interview, he also showed Gibbs copies of the monthly salary documents covering 2008-2015 that were provided to him.

Sgt Rolle said when shown the documents, Gibbs acknowledged the amounts were reflective of her true salary for the periods given.

However, Sgt Rolle said Gibbs declined to answer when it was suggested that she would alter the payroll file for each month, rename the file and use a number two behind it. He said she also declined to comment when it was suggested she would send one of the deposit payroll files to COB’s finance department for approval and send another file to BOB via email for processing.

Sgt Rolle said she also declined to answer when it was suggested to her that as a result of her actions, and falsifying COB’s records, she stole an excess of some $640,000 from COB.

Nonetheless, as a result of that second interview, Sgt Rolle said he charged Gibbs with the offences currently before the court.

Gibbs is on trial before Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars between March 2008 and October 2015 while employed at COB.

She is facing eight counts of stealing by reason of employment and 16 counts of falsification of accounts.

Roger Gomez Jr represents Gibbs while Al-Leecia Delancey and Antania Rolle-Taylor represents the Crown.

The trial continues.