THE prosecution’s new witness in the ATL pension fraud case yesterday testified that pension fund Chairman Patrick Lynch knew that consent was needed from Gorstew Limited before any surplus could be distributed from the pension scheme.

Claudette McLeish — a trustee of the fund and former finance director of Gorstew Ltd — said that during a meeting of trustees in July 2008, general manager of the pension fund Catherine Barber presented a draft letter to Lynch and reminded him that Gorstew had to give consent based on the rules for the scheme before surplus could be distributed.

According to McLeish, who is now financial controller at the Jamaica Observer Limited, Lynch passed the letter to her so she could check to ensure that the figures it contained corresponded with the figures the actuarial evaluation recommended for distribution, which she did before signing and dating the draft letter, after confirming the accuracy.

McLeish testified that she was aware that consent was needed from the board of Gorstew Ltd, the holding company for Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s companies, contradicting Lynch’s position that he was unaware consent was needed before backtracking on that statement.

She said that during the final trustees’ meeting for 2010, which was held at the Gorstew boardroom in December, Lynch announced that he had retired and that Stewart had complained that he wasn’t aware that consent was given for the distribution of the surplus.

McLeish, who was led in her examination-in-chief by prosecutor Garth McBean, testified that she was surprised that Lynch didn’t seek Gorstew’s consent in light of the draft letter that was presented at the 2008 meeting.

Patrick Lynch; Jeffery Pyne, a former director of Gorstew Ltd; and Catherine Barber are believed to have conspired in the forging of four letters to deceive that consent was given for the distribution of $1.7 billion in pension fund surplus.

The prosecution maintains that the letters, which had been presented to Stewart by Barber at a meeting on December 16, 2010, had been backdated to 1998, 2002, 2005, and 2008. Importantly, Pyne, who signed the letters, had left the company seven months before December 15, 2010 when the alleged forgery was discovered. Lynch was the alleged mastermind behind the scheme, the court was told.

Meanwhile, the court was adjourned earlier than usual for McLeish to give a statement on Gorstew’s approval process. Senior Magistrate Lorna Shelly-Williams ordered the statement following an application from defence attorneys based on an aspect of McLeish’s evidence.

The trial continues today in the Corporate Area RM Court in Half-Way-Tree.