25/01/2006

Former UUP councillor accused of forgery

A former Ulster Unionist councillor has appeared in Armagh Crown Court today, accused of two counts of forgery and false accounting.

Raymond Ferguson, 64, and a solicitor from Lakeside Avenue in Enniskillen, denies the charges, which relate to the development of a Fermanagh golf course.

He is accused of drawing up a false invoice and a cheque for more than £18,000 that he then submitted to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board to get almost 40 per cent of it back in grant aid.

The invoice and cheque were in the name of Castlehume Developments, a company in which Mr Ferguson was a partner.

The prosecution claim that Mr Ferguson forged the invoice and then paid a cheque for the same amount into a bank account.

It was also claimed that the accused subsequently withdrew the same total of money from the account, later that day.

The case is set to continue at a later date.

(EF/SP)

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