THE former financial director and a packhouse foreman at the Potato Marketing Organisation charged with defrauding farmers are to have their case heard in the Royal Court.

Andrew Barette, who was also the financial director at Barette and Gruchy, and storeman Ronald Green are due to be committed to the Royal Court on 7 June.

The Magistrate, Ian Le Marquand, this morning declined jurisdiction to hear the case in the lower court.

The charges relate to Jersey Royals being sent by farmers to the Barette and Gruchy packhouse at Mont Mado, St John, before being shipped to the UK.

Barette (38), of Grande Route de Mont à l’Abbé, and Green (70), of Pomme d’Or Farm Estate, are alleged to have conspired to defraud Bel Val Ltd, Clamer Farms Ltd, GBN Growers Ltd, Richard Le Boutillier, Lester Richardson, Le Petit Cotil Farms Ltd and Valley Growers Ltd between 1 May and 1 September 2002.

The charge alleges that the pair understated the amount of potatoes which Barette and Gruchy received from each of the named farmers and ‘paid them less than their just entitlement’.