Police battle against the clock to gather Suphire evidence

A PROMINENT financier suspected of stealing around £9 million from the Electricity Authority (EAC) pension fund was yesterday remanded in custody for a further four days.

It was the third remand in a row for Suphire boss Yiannos Andronikou, who is held in connection with theft, fraud and conspiracy to commit a felony in connection with £9 million entrusted to him by the EAC pension fund to invest, which has since vanished.
The same goes for £200,000 handed over to Suphire by the Forest Industries.

The court decision yesterday followed a lengthy hearing on Tuesday afternoon, during which police requested an eight-day remand, citing the huge workload they had for the case file to be completed.

The judge said the police’s request for eight more days was not justified, considering the number of statements they still had to take.

On Tuesday, police said they had 30 more statements to take from various people involved in the case.

Considering that they took 27 statements in four days in the previous week, police could finish taking the 30 statements in four days, the court said.

Seven police investigators and two separate criminal investigators appointed by the legal services are currently working on the case.

The court stressed that work had to be finished within the four next days because Andronikou, by then, would have been held without charge for 20 days.

The rest of the issues raised in the remand hearing would be dealt with during the trial, the court said.

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