Last night, 7NEWS broke the story of the constable who scammed away $18,000 gallons worth of the Police Department's fuel supply and today police took Leroy Kerr to court. The 22-year-old constable appeared before Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie this afternoon where he was read 1 charge of theft for 18,965 gallons of fuel, valued at $175,525. Because it is an indictable offence no plea was taken. He received bail of $15,000 and will re-appear on August 30th.
An investigation by the CIB Office shows that between November of last year and April of this year, Kerr orchestrated the theft of those thousands of gallons and tens of thousands of dollars.
How did he do it? And how did he get away with it? Well, the constable was authorized to issue police fuel orders for Eastern Division and issued, or more likely sold, these to non-police personnel. Then those civilians, driving private vehicles went to Shell One Stop Gas Station in Belize City and went to pumps manned by specific attendants who were in on the scam and get fuel for their private rides with a police order form. Three attendants are being investigated for their involvement. They have been detained, but not charged, or at least not yet.
If you don't recognize him by the picture, Kerr became briefly famous in February 2005 during the protests in Belmopan.
And while the method was straightforward, the bigger question is, how could one constable get away with such a massive misappropriation? Well, police have been tight lipped about where the breakdown occurred on the administrative chain. What we do know is that Kerr worked directly under the former Officer Commanding Eastern Division, Assistant Commissioner Crispin Jeffries and that afforded him some degree of freedom from oversight.
While there is no implication that Jeffries was involved in or benefited from the scam, Kerr was considered his right hand man. And in fact the revelation of the scale of his wrongdoing only came to light when a new Officer Commanding Eastern Division, Assistant Commissioner Allen Whylie came to the office.
And while the massive case of theft is a major embarrassment for police, it didn't end there. Proving definitively that not all accused persons are treated equally, today, police at the courthouse, the same officers who regularly parade and profile with well known criminals, set up a deliberate and determined strategy to allow Kerr to dodge the media. It was a fairly elaborate cat and mouse game, ending with Kerr being slipped out through the bailiff's entrance. Past deliberate efforts to elude the cameras, have included slipping an accused officer out through a window at the Supreme Court.
