Ragguette pleads guilty to four counts of fraud

Chair of the Carnival Bands Association (CBA) Hugh Ragguette will return to the Serious Offences Court on October 13, 2016 to learn his fate, after he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud last Friday.{{more}}

Raguette, 65, had originally entered a not guilty plea on April 4, 2016. However, when he reappeared before the court on September 30, his lawyer, Ronald Marks, asked that the charges be put to him again.

He is charged that on September 6, 2011 at Kingstown, he intended to defraud the United States Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados, by falsely representing himself to be H Val Prescott, a fictitious person.

The Stoney Ground resident faces two additional charges for falsely representing himself to be Mavis E Johnson, another fictitious person, with intent to defraud the United States Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados on September 9, 2011 and August 9, 2013.

Ragguette was additionally charged that on July 29, 2013 at Kingstown, he falsely represented himself to be CB Richards, also a fictitious person, with intent to defraud the United States consular officer in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Marks asked that sentencing be postponed, as he needed three weeks to collect documents relevant to the case.

Senior prosecutor Adolphus Delpesche did not object to the adjournment and Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias set the date for sentencing to October 13, 2016. (AS)