Former Ministry of Education chief accounts clerk Paulette Wilson admitted to altering overtime records in order for her high school friend, Andrew Bridgewater, to get a pay increase, a court heard yesterday.
Wilson, 59, of Coral Harbour, is accused of falsifying the pay records of Bridgewater to show that he was entitled to $6,657.12 between October 2015 and March 2016.
Wilson, who is on $5,000 bail, has denied charges of falsification of accounts and conspiracy to commit fraud by false pretenses at her trial before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
Bridgewater has pleaded guilty and is serving a one-year prison term.
According to Winston Brooks, the acting chief of security for the Ministry of Education, overtime for security officers was stopped in 2010, and employees who worked extra hours received time off instead.
Bridgewater, a contracted worker, was paid $130 weekly, and his pay was increased to $691 through Wilson's alteration of records, prosecutors allege.
Inspector Philip Davis, the prosecutor, asked Brooks, "To your knowledge, can you say if Mr. Bridgewater was compensated with days off?"
Brooks replied, "He never worked any overtime based on his [medical] condition."
Sergeant 1980 Dwayne Delancy, who witnessed the interview between Wilson and Corporal 3133 Wallace on September 23, 2016, testified that he held a confrontation between the suspects five days later.
Technical officer Sergeant Ernest Pratt played the videotaped confrontation between Wilson and Bridgewater in court yesterday.
On the video, both suspects waived their right to counsel.
In Wilson's presence, Bridgewater claimed that she collected her cut of $350 from him every Friday. He said that on one occasion, he spent $20 or $30 of Wilson's money and she asked him why.
Bridgewater said he told Wilson that his "boyfriend needed it", and she said that she didn't know "you is go that way".
After that incident, Bridgewater said, he wasn't "man enough" to spend the extra cash "because it was not my money".
Delancy asked Wilson if she wanted to respond to Bridgewater's assertions.
Wilson said that she would rely on her earlier statement to police in which she denied receiving any money from Bridgewater.
However, later in the video, Wilson said that she increased Bridgewater's pay because he "always" complained about his financial situation and she often had to buy him food and give him bus fare.
Wilson said, "I loved you like a brother and I was only trying to help you out."
Wilson also accused Bridgewater of betraying her by going to the Ministry of Education and "carrying on" after the overpayments were discovered.
As a result, his pay was docked $100 per week.
Wilson said that Bridgewater had gone against her instructions to speak to her supervisor to have the deductions reduced.
Bridgewater replied, "I was getting $30 a week. I needed to find out how long my salary was going to be deducted."
Bridgewater said Wilson had failed to live up to a promise to give him money after he told her about the pay deductions.
He said he went to the Ministry of Education after his pay was cut for four consecutive weeks.
He said, "My light was off; I could barely eat."
Wilson snapped, "Why weren't you paying your bills when you was getting your money?"
Bridgewater said, "I had things to do."
Wilson's lawyer, Devard Francis, will cross-examine Delancy and Pratt when the trial resumes on September 22.

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