MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Thirty-one-year-old deputy superintendent of the Road and Works Department at the Manchester Parish Council, Sanja Elliott, who is on fraud charges, has taken up the bail offer that he was granted in the Corporate Area parish court late last month.

Elliot and co-accused, Dwayne Sibblies, 27, who is not an employee at the Council, were both offered $3.5milion bail.

The men were arrested during an operation by the Office of the Contractor General, Financial Investigation Division and the Major Organised Crime and Agency, following a search including the Council offices and Elliott’s home.

Elliott and Sibblies were charged with conspiracy to defraud, obtaining money by false pretence and forgery.

When the matter was called up in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate’s Court today (Wednesday) Sibblies was still in custody.

He was identified as a caretaker of a home owned by Elliott.

The Court was told that vouchers and cheque stubs in Sibblies name, amounting to $1.2 million for work done for the Council, was found in the area that Sibblies occupied.

It was, however, disclosed that he has never done work for the organisation.

There were also reports of other people who have encashed cheque in their name and handed over the proceeds to Elliott.

Upon assessing Sibblies’ level of involvement in the alleged fraud, presiding magistrate Desiree Alleyene reduced his bail offer to $1.5 million.

Attorney-at-law Norman Godfrey represented the two men.

Godfrey argued that particularly in Elliott’s case, items that were taken that had no direct bearing on the matter being investigated should be returned.

The case is set for mention on Wednesday July 27.

Alicia Sutherland