ALLEGED FORGERY
COURT GRANTS BAIL TO FORMER FNPF EMPLOYEE
A41-year-old former employee of the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) who is facing charges of forging documents has been granted bail by the Magistrates Court in Suva yesterday.
The accused, Jack Edward Hiramatsu, has been charged with five counts of forgery for allegedly forging various legal documents pertaining to the purchase of land. He appeared before Magistrate Deepika Prakash.
He is charged alongside with three other accused persons in the matter.
The alleged offences took place between June 6 and June 11, 2019, where Hiramatsu allegedly altered an iTaukei Land Trust Board Title and lodged the same together with other forged documents at FNPF to assume that two other accused persons in the matter were prospective buyers of the property.
The two other accused persons had allegedly submitted their original Urban Housing Assistance withdrawal forms to Hiramatsu with the intention of inducing FNPF Officials to accept it as genuine and upon its acceptance, to dishonestly obtain a gain to the total amount of $37,500.00 which was released from their FNPF accounts.
The money was allegedly shared amongst all four accused persons.
Magistrate Prakash granted bail to Hiramatsu on the sum of $1000 with two sureties each bonded on the bail bond sum of $1000.
She also ordered Hiramatsu not to reoffend while on bail, not to interfere with any of the prosecution witnesses, surrender his passport and travel documents and reside at the fixed address provided to the court and not to change his address without the permission of the court. Hiramatsu was also ordered to report to Lami Police Station every Wednesdays between 8am to 6pm.
A stop departure order was also issued against Hiramatsu. The case was adjourned for plea on September 11.