Civil servant guilty of stealing $586

A civil servant accused of stealing while she worked at the Lands and Survey Department has been found guilty of theft. 

Lavinia Hume-Ebanks was convicted Wednesday of theft of $586 and three charges of false accounting. 

Hume-Ebanks, 30, was originally accused of stealing a total of $2,928.35, along with 16 charges of false accounting between Aug. 8, 2008 and Nov. 8, 2010. 

According to informal records kept by the Caymanian Compass, the matter first came to court in November 2011. There were several adjournments as Hume-Ebanks advised the various magistrates that she was trying to get a lawyer to represent her. 

Trial began in November 2013 with Nicholas Dixey for the defense and Crown Counsel Kaya Ball conducting the case for the prosecution. Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn heard the matter over several dates. On Feb. 17, she ruled that there was no case for Hume-Ebanks to answer on 13 of the false accounting charges because the evidence against her was insufficient. 

The defendant then gave evidence, explaining her actions in relation to the three remaining charges of omitting to make entries in respect of funds received from customers at the Lands and Survey Department. 

The magistrate pointed to inconsistencies and contradictions in the defendant’s evidence and said she was satisfied that Hume-Ebanks processed six customer transactions and concealed them by failing to record them, knowing her actions were dishonest. 

One method was to enter a transaction into the computerized system and then cancel it. In two instances, the customer paid and received the product requested, so the transactions should have been in the system. If the cancellations were made because of a mistake, then a new entry should have appeared. 

In another instance, no receipt was generated by the computer program. Instead, the customer’s request form was photocopied and given to the customer as a receipt. 

The amounts involved in those transactions totalled $946, but Hume-Ebanks had paid back $360. 

There was evidence during the crown’s case that cashiers were expected to pay for any shortfall that occurred while they were on duty.  

Hume-Ebanks told the court that she started as a cashier and after her promotion she acted as relief cashier, but was expected to complete her other duties as well. During these times, although she had been moved to an office upstairs, she sometimes worked from a spare desk downstairs and at times could not enter transactions right away because she was too busy. 

She also testified that a transaction entered under her name did not mean that she had done it; someone else could have done it under her log-in details. She described security as lax and gave examples of how any number of people could have taken cash.  

After the magistrate’s verdicts, Mr. Dixey asked that a social inquiry report be obtained before sentencing. Senior Crown Counsel Tanya Lobban invited the court to review bail now that the defendant had been convicted of breach of trust offenses. She pointed out that the value of the money stolen was just one consideration. Breach of trust sentences also involve factors such as effect of the offense on co-workers and effect on the general public. 

The magistrate ordered Hume-Ebanks to surrender her passport and provide one or two sureties in the sum of $4,000. Sentencing was set for 9 a.m. April 13.