Verna Maduro, the former BVI Tourist Board Financial Comptroller previously charged with 56 counts of theft, one count of furnishing false information and one count of breach of trust, pleaded guilty yesterday morning to the false information and breach of trust charges. The 56 counts of theft were dropped with the agreement of prosecutors.

“The first two counts are umbrella counts that cover the entire matters for which the trial was concerned,” said former Director of Public Prosecutions Terrence Williams, who led the team prosecuting Ms. Maduro. “It would be not in the interest of justice for the Crown to insist on a trial continuing for those other counts, bearing in mind that we are not near the end of the trial; we are in fact at the end of the beginning for the trial.”

The guilty plea, made in the Commercial Court building after the High Court was closed due to an air-conditioning malfunction, came after two in-chambers meetings between Ms. Maduro’s lawyers, prosecutors and Justice Rita Joseph-Olivetti.

See the June 16, 2011 edition for full coverage.