PHIPPS. currently serving a life sentence for double murder

THE approximately $17 million stolen from a safe at the Ministry of Finance's Financial Investigations Division (FID) was money seized from the former reputed Matthews Lane 'strongman' Donald 'Zeeks' Phipps, a senior government source said yesterday.

The money, which was seized in a police raid was being held as an exhibit in a case against Phipps.

Up to yesterday it could not be ascertained if there was a robbery at the Heroes Circle offices of the Ministry of Finance, where the money was being held, or if the money was removed clandestinely.

However, finance ministry officials, including Minister Audley Shaw, were said to be gung-ho about finding the culprits responsible, our source said.

The minister said Tuesday that polygraph tests would be used to find the culprits.

Phipps was under investigation by the FID, formerly headed by Englishman Mike Surridge.

Our source said yesterday that the money, which disappeared about two months ago, apparently went missing after Phipps appeared in court on September 13 to answer to the charge of unlawful possession with regard to the same money being held in custody.

Phipps was charged alongside his spouse, Yvonne Salesman, after police raided his business place at Matthews Lane in downtown Kingston and his Highland Drive home in Havendale, St Andrew in April 2005.
The police said they found money amounting to J$18 million, ski masks, a bulletproof vest and a small amount of ganja at Phipps' Highland Drive residence. At the premises in Matthews Lane - the tiny People's National Party (PNP) enclave in West Kingston - police allegedly found 26 rounds of .45 ammunition, two pounds of cured ganja and controlled pharmaceuticals. Some of the monies seized were in United States and Canadian currency.
Phipps is scheduled to return to court on November 26 to answer the charge of unlawful possession.
Yesterday, a retired cop who did not want to be named, explained that when money is seized and is to be part of evidence, "the money is to be logged bill by bill, including a record of the serial number.

"As a matter of fact, the serial number is a most important element of the bill and the value of the bill," said the ex-policeman.

Phipps is currently serving a life sentence after being found guilty of the double murder of Dayton Williams, alias 'Scotch Brite', and Rodney Farquharson, who were shot in the head and their bodies burnt in an open lot on Rose Lane, downtown Kingston in April 2006.

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