A decades-long senior leader at the Bahamas’ Water & Sewerage Corporation (WSC) has failed in his high-stakes legal bid to secure nearly $1 million in damages for alleged unfair dismissal, after a Supreme Court justice backed the utility’s decision to terminate his employment over damning evidence of undisclosed personal profit and systemic conflict of interest.
Trevor Roberts, who spent 38 years climbing the WSC ranks from an entry-level semi-skilled laborer to senior superintendent of road reinstatement, was terminated in October 2020 following an internal audit that uncovered his hidden ties to multiple third-party contractors awarded millions in public works contracts from the utility. Investigators found Roberts used his position to steer maintenance and construction contracts to businesses he secretly controlled, with friends, neighbors, relatives, and even WSC contract staff serving as nominee owners to mask his involvement. Multiple linked firms shared the same physical address as Roberts’ personal residence, court documents confirmed.
By the time the audit was finalized in August 2020, investigators documented that WSC had paid $912,315 to just four of the contractors connected to Roberts, all without his mandatory disclosure of any ownership stake. In his 92-page Supreme Court judgment, acting justice Raynard Rigby KC described the audit’s conclusions as damning, ruling that Roberts’ clear drive for personal enrichment created an unavoidable conflict of interest that provided full just cause for immediate summary dismissal.
The trial also uncovered significant allegations of procedural irregularities during the 2020 internal investigation, led by WSC lead auditor Krystal Ferguson. Ferguson testified that within 24 hours of the probe launching, then-WSC executive chairman Adrian Gibson, a former Long Island MP, pressured her to accelerate the investigation and interview Roberts prematurely, contradicting standard investigative protocol that waits to interview the subject until all evidence has been gathered. Ferguson further claimed Gibson personally contacted key witness Kimley Ferguson, a nominee owner for one of Roberts’ linked firms, promising she would not face criminal prosecution if she cooperated with the board. The auditor argued this board interference compromised the investigation’s impartiality and integrity, but Justice Rigby ultimately declined to weigh these concerns in his final ruling.
Roberts launched his wrongful dismissal suit in 2023, arguing WSC violated its own disciplinary processes by failing to provide him a copy of the audit findings and a fair opportunity to defend himself against the allegations. At the time of his termination, he earned an annual salary of $75,000 and received just $20,369 in a final net payout, while the utility withheld his full retirement benefits. Roberts told the court the unproven criminal allegations that followed his termination have upended his entire family’s life: he lost his eligibility for U.S. pre-clearance travel, barring him from visiting his daughter who resides in the U.S., and his son has declined to pursue higher education in America out of fear he will face similar travel restrictions. Financially, he claims he now owes more than $30,000 in back rent, cannot pay the nearly $254,000 medical bill for his wife’s needed surgery, and has been forced to let his children’s life insurance coverage lapse. As of the trial, no criminal charges have been filed against Roberts, though a Royal Bahamas Police Force probe remains open.
WSC countered that Roberts was lawfully terminated, and that he and his former legal counsel were provided a full copy of the audit report in late 2020, with more than a month to prepare a formal response before the termination decision was made. The utility’s defense confirmed its investigation uncovered widespread irregularities across six contractor firms, including two that received $702,619 in WSC payments between 2010 and 2020 and shared Roberts’ home address. Evidence showed Roberts personally signed and collected check payments made out to one linked firm, Shalom Development Company, and altered invoice dates and numbers on two other contractor submissions. When interviewed by investigators in 2020, he initially denied holding any financial or personal interest in any of the contracting firms.
Kimley Ferguson, Shalom’s registered nominee owner, confirmed to investigators she had no involvement in the firm’s actual operations: she could not confirm any of the billed work was completed, had never visited any work sites, did not know the names of any employees, and only prepared invoices using information Roberts provided. She stated she kept just $500 from every WSC payment, with the vast majority of funds going directly to Roberts, and had provided her government identification to Roberts so he could register the firm in her name. Under cross-examination, Roberts admitted he knew Kimley Ferguson through his wife’s former workplace at Commonwealth Bank, but could not explain why she deposited more than $5,500 into a personal bank account he controlled. He argued the shared residential address for his linked firms was a result of all units in his apartment complex sharing a single postal address, and claimed altering invoices did not harm WSC’s interests.
Investigators also found a complete lack of documentation and audit trail for 15 invoices totaling $54,000 in contractor payments, and that WSC halted its full third-party filter changing program due to the inability to verify completed work. The audit also found excess stockpiling of 13,921 filter cartridges with inadequate inventory controls, and that Roberts continued to carry out filter changes for customers using WSC vehicles even after being transferred out of the distribution maintenance division responsible for that work.
In his final ruling, Justice Rigby found Roberts to be an untruthful witness, confirming he was fully aware he was the target of the investigation and that WSC provided adequate time and access to the audit to mount a defense. The judge ruled the evidence of misconduct was overwhelming, noting that Roberts’ arrangement to front contracts through nominees and siphon the majority of proceeds constituted dishonesty that repugnant to WSC’s organizational interests. “He placed himself in a position of conflict between his duty to the Corporation as an employee and his desire for personal enrichment,” Rigby wrote, adding the conduct rose to the level of justifying immediate dismissal under Bahamian employment law.