Benque Viejo’s Town Council is under scrutiny tonight after a driver was caught misappropriating four thousand dollars in fuel. Now, these things happen – but what’s raising eyebrows in this case is the fact the driver Mickey Castellanos is the son of a town councillor Ana Melita Castellanos. Nonetheless, the council says it has moved swiftly to deal with it. A release says that on Tuesday of this week the council got its monthly fuel bill from the Texaco Service Station which was $11,114. That’s a figure well above the usual bill and an investigation was launched to determine how it spiked so greatly.
The investigation pointed to two people: Mickey Castellanos who drives for the council and an employee at the gas station. According to the release, they simply billed the council for fuel not consumed. The fraudulent over-billing was four thousand one hundred dollars $4,100. According to the council release both acknowledged the fraud and have signed an agreement to re-pay the money.
Mayor Nicholas Ruiz told us that he was disgusted to find out about the scam and that they have acted swiftly and with vehemence when they fired Mickey Castellanos on Wednesday, August fifth – the day after the fraud was discovered. But what about criminal charges? Although Castellanos and his partner at the gas station have agreed to repay the money you’ll recall that so did Julio Santos at the Benque Viejo Border Management office and – at the insistence of the political directorate in Belmopan – he was still charged for theft.
Well, at this time no formal criminal complaint against Castellanos has been made. But Mayor Ruiz today told us that he has gone to the Benque Viejo police. The officer in charge at Benque Viejo told us that Ruiz today made an informal complaint – we don’t know what that is – and they are investigating. The Town Council release says that they have reserved the right to take civil action if the two culprits fail to live up to their undertaking to repay the funds.
