Court: Repayment of cancer funds must continue

A woman who was convicted in February for stealing K66,164.64 from the Port Moresby Cancer Relief Society has repaid over K13,000 so far.

Margaret Ani of Pari village, Port Moresby, returned before Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika today to give an update to the court on her restitution progress.

Ani has so far repaid K13,500 and has an outstanding of K52,664.64 to repay before 1st March, 2017.

Her lawyer told the court today that she has no formal employment and plans to sell her vehicle before Christmas to make further payment. Her husband is also assisting her with the restitution.

Sir Gibbs said the restitution must continue because the Port Moresby Cancer Relief Society was set up to assist cancer patients and the court will make sure it gets the repayment in.  

Failure to repay all the monies before March 2017 will result in Ani serving the remaining sentence of three years in jail.

On Feb 29 this year, she was sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour after the court found her guilty of forging 24 pay cheques, totalling K66,164.64, belonging to the Port Moresby Cancer Relief Society.

She was a volunteer with the society as the treasurer in 2012 when she forged the signatures of Dadi Toka Jnr 24 times.

The three-year sentence period was suspended and Ani was given 12 months from Feb 29 to repay all the monies.  Failure to do so will see her serve an outstanding period of the sentence.

During the trial hearing of Ani’s case, the court was also told she stole the cancer funds as she was under pressure from her partner to give him money to repay his debts.

Author: 
Sally Pokiton