Local activist in dock over Nation Building Fund grant

Sandra Catron

(CNS): A local woman better known as an outspoken advocate on a range of issues, from animal abuse to sex-offenders, was in the dock Friday facing trial over allegations of fraud relating to the controversial Nation Building Fund. Sandra Catron is charged with eight counts of uttering a false document over a group of students who engaged in a paralegal course with her company Micro-Matrix but who never finished the programme. Catron was paid from the fund for 15 students but when government officials discovered that eight had not completed the course, they began an investigation.

The case hangs on copies of the certificates that the students would have received if they passed, which Catron sent to the premier’s office ahead of graduation. The crown said that she sent 15 certificates and as a result misled the premier’s office, which was managing the fund, into believing all of the students had completed the course.

Catron has denied the allegations, and although she has acknowledged that some students did not complete the online course, she maintains that all 15 had signed up and received the necessary course materials and log-in details. The crown claims that Catron was attempting to defraud government by presenting certificates, implying that all the students had stayed the course.

As the case opened Friday, jurors heard that Catron had been asked by ministry staff to send in the copies of the certificates before the course was completed and she complied with their wishes.

Staff said that “red flags” were raised when a student complained and investigations revealed that some of the students did not take part in the course at all. However, witnesses from the premier’s office admitted that they did not know much about the course or that it was purely internet based, and did not ask Catron about how it worked.

The case, which is being heard by a jury of five women and two men, continues Monday, with Justice Malcolm Swift presiding.