Syed theft case postponed until New Year

Hassan Syed

(CNS): The former president of the University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI) who is charged with stealing more than half a million dollars from the university was granted an adjournment this week in his case, which was set to go to trial at the end of this month. Hassan Syed will now not face trail until January 2017 after the court agreed to the delay. The Pakistani national was extradited from Switzerland more than two years ago in May 2014 after he was arrested there on an Interpol warrant.

The charges date back to theft allegations which reportedly began more than ten years ago and the case has been adjourned numerous times at the request of Syed due to problems with his representation.

The former UCCI boss is accused of using his government credit card to buy lavish gifts from Tiffany’s jewellers and to fund luxury weekends away when he was president of the college. He faces charges of theft, obtaining a pecuniary advantage and money laundering offences, which the crown alleges took place between September 2006 and June 2008.

He resigned from UCCI in 2008 while on sick leave, but soon afterwards the discrepancies on his government card were exposed during a government audit. By that time, he had already left Cayman and was believed to be in Canada but he then disappeared and was on the run for five years before he was finally tracked down in Switzerland.

The case has taken a number of twists and turns, with Syed claiming he was also working as a secret government agent when he was at UCCI. Represented locally by Amelia Fosuhene, Syed will be represented at trial, when it happens, by the UK Conservative MP, Geoffrey Cox QC, who also represented the opposition leader in his credit card fraud case.

McKeeva Bush was acquitted in October 2014 of allegations that he had misused his government credit card while gambling in casinos in the US and the Bahamas.