43-year-old Amado Olivera, the former accountant for the popular Riverside Tavern in Belize City, has been freed of a major theft charge. His former employers, Bowen and Bowen Company Limited, accused him of pocketing just over $48,000 of the Tavern’s money.

Olivera, a resident of Orange Walk Town, was arrested and charged with the offense on October 22 of last year. That’s after Natalie Grange, a manager at Bowen and Bowen, reported the money stolen. She told police that on August 29, 2019, she was alerted by Bowen’s financial director that there were some discrepancies with the deposit slips which were sent to the bank. She researched and found that there were discrepancies in 10 different deposit slips, which represented a total sum of over forty eight thousand dollars, money which was missing. She informed police that Olivera was the person in charge of checking the deposit slips before they are sent to the bank. Olivera had walked off the job and that he left a resignation letter on his desk.

But when the case was called up today before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts-Anderson, Bowen and Bowen informed the court that they were no longer seeking any court action against Olivera because they company has since been fully compensated for the missing money.

The charge was withdrawn and he was allowed to go free.