Witnesses have claimed in court the receipts which appear to show they paid $100 each as part of their tuition fees at ‘Unuaki ‘O Tonga Royal Institute (UNTRI) were allegedly forged.
They claimed they never studied at the school and this was the first time for them to see the receipts when they were provided in court.
Meanwhile, the legal teams for the two parties have agreed for the prosecutor not to call further 152 witnesses, the Kakalu ‘O Tonga newspaper reported.
The paper has quoted Supreme Court Nicholas Cooper as commending the move to help keep down a long process expected to hear the witnesses.
The deal was struck after the two parties agreed that these more than 150 witnesses did not attend the institute despite UTRI claiming they were registered.
Florence Lasike and Malia Lasike, two of the witnesses who were called by the prosecutor claimed the signatures appeared on two separate UNTRI receipts of $100 each were not theirs, the paper reported. The Lasikes’ names were recorded at the UNTRI in 2014.
Justice Cooper asked Florence to confirmed that she did not pay $100 to UNTRI in which she replied no she did not, the Kakalu said.
Malia told the court this was the first time for her to see the receipt in question.
Another witness, called by the prosecutor, ‘Olimipa Filiai denied receiving a receipt of $200 from UNTRI as proof of payment in 2013 for a tuition fee. She told the court she did not pay the money.
She claimed she did not study at UNTRI but she once worked at the school’s drive-through restaurant as well as being a teacher at one stage teaching Tourism and Hospitality there.
She alleged the signature in the receipt was different from hers.
The witnesses appeared in court as part of a fraud trial which involved the Minister of Infrastructure and her husband ex-Cabinet Minister ‘Etuate Lavulavu.
The couple have pleaded not guilty to charges relating to knowingly dealt with forged documents and obtaining credit by false pretences.
The investigation was prompted by the Auditor General’s office claiming hundreds of students supposedly attending the UNTRI could not be identified and that the Institute should repay TP$553,800 to the Technical Vocational Education and Training fund (TVET).
Police charged the couple with using forged documents to support an application to obtain supplementary government funding to assist students at their UTRI private school.
