Ruel Reid named in evidence on six retail purchases in fraud trial

A smart television and a foot spa were among six items former Education Minister Ruel Reid purchased from a retail chain over a near five-week period in 2018, according to evidence of a witness in his fraud trial.

Reid was appointed education minister and a government Senator in March 2016 and resigned in March 2019 amid fraud allegations.

While giving evidence in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday, the witness confirmed that the Samsung smart TV and an Android TV box were purchased at the company’s St Andrew branch on March 12, 2018.

The other items – a Proctor kettle, a Hamilton Beach juicer, a Black & Decker ceramic steel clothes iron and a Conair foot spa – were purchased at the same location on April 29, 2018, according to the witness, who was an executive at the retail chain at the time.

“In relation to exhibit A, on the face of it, can you say who picked up the item?” asked lead prosecutor, Ashtelle Steele, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, making reference to the smart television.

“Ruel Reid”, the witness replied.

He repeated the same name when asked who collected the other items.

The former retail store executive testified that the purchases came to his attention on February 5, 2019 after he got some “correspondence” from a police investigator.

As a result, he said using the “correspondence” from the police, he instructed a customer service representative to check the company’s database.

The witness testified that he directed the customer service representative to input in the database using a telephone number that was among the correspondence provided by the police “and it brought up information in the name ‘Ruel Reid’”.

The former retail chain executive said he watched as the customer service representative printed six documents from the database, which he identified as customer pick-up notes.

A customer pick-up note is the internal document used to confirm delivery of an item to the purchaser, he explained.

“I was the one who picked it up from the printer”, he testified.

“Did you look at what you picked up from the printer?” the lead prosecutor questioned.

“Yes, I verified it,” said the witness, who is also a justice of the peace.

The printed documents were handed over to the police on February 20, 2019, according to the witness.

During cross-examination by attorney Anthony Armstrong, who is representing Reid, the former executive agreed that he was not present when the items were purchased. He also agreed with a suggestion by Armstrong that he was not present when the items were paid for.

“Based on the customer pick-up notes, can you say the person who actually picked up the items?” Reid’s attorney asked.

“No, I would not be able to,” the witness replied.

But during re-examination, Steele showed him the customer pick-up notes before asking: “In relation to exhibit 6A, on the face of it, can you say who picked up the item”?

“Ruel Reid,” he answered.

The former education minister is on trial, along with his wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, former Caribbean Maritime University President Professor Fritz Pinnock, and Brown’s Town Councillor Kim Brown Lawrence for multiple fraud-related crimes.

It is alleged that they were part of a scheme that siphoned off more than $25 million in public funds through fake jobs, sham contracts, and bogus invoices between 2016 and 2019.

The trial continues next Tuesday.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com