Crown pursues remaining charges against ex-civil servant

Glass House, George Town

(CNS): The prosecution will re-present its case against Atisha Ebanks, a former clerk in the chief secretary’s office, after a jury acquitted her last month of 24 charges relating to allegations of sustained theft that amounted to around $50,000. But the jury was hung on six further counts of theft amounting to $2,500, which the crown will now pursue at trial next April. Ebanks has denied taking cash from people applying for Caymanian naturalization and fiddling the accounts to disguise her offending. She blamed a poor management system in operation at the time when she worked in the Glass House  dealing with the process.

Ebanks was accused of stealing the money between November 2006 and October 2008, when the theft was discovered after an individual turned up for the pledging ceremony without a receipt. Ebanks was placed on required leave in March 2009 but she resigned from the service at the end of that year. Police did not begin their criminal enquiries until 2011.

Ebanks was bailed Friday to return to court next April, when the two week re-trial is expected to take place.