A mysterious cheque drawn on a Progressive Labour Party bank account sparked debate among lawyers during the Andre Curtis case, The Royal Gazette can reveal.It was discovered by detectives investigating Mr Curtis over allegations of theft from Government and false accounting that he was cleared of at Supreme Court yesterday.During the prosecution case, Crown counsel Kirsty-Ann Kiellor read the jury a statement from Yolanda Furbert, who is chairman of the PLP Warwick South Central Branch.Ms Furbert said she was approached in May 2010 by police officers from the Financial Crime Unit. They showed her a $2,000 Bank of Bermuda cheque paid to Mr Curtis’s company, Harvest Investment Holdings.The cheque, dated November 21, 2007, came from an account named “PLP Warwick South Central # 26” and was marked to indicate that it was for “PLP radio advertising”.According to Ms Furbert, each cheque from the account had to be signed by two out of three signatories; herself, the then-Premier Ewart Brown and Mr Curtis, who was branch chairman at the time. The statement read by the prosecutor did not mention who the signatories on the cheque in question were.However, it was revealed during legal arguments in the absence of the jury that the second signature appeared to be that of Ms Furbert. Ms Furbert told police she never signed the cheque. Ms Kiellor wanted the jury to be able to consider that as part of the case against Mr Curtis, alleging that Ms Furbert’s signature may have been forged.However, defence lawyer Mark Pettingill argued against the evidence being allowed, saying it related to an “entirely different issue” than anything Mr Curtis was charged with.Chief Justice Richard Ground inquired of Ms Kiellor during the legal arguments: “So why not charge him with stealing $2,000 from the PLP?”The prosecutor replied: “I wasn’t involved in the early stages [of the case]. I can’t speak to that.”The judge eventually ruled the information about Ms Furbert’s signature to be inadmissible on the grounds that it was prejudicial.The issue could not be reported on until now, since the jury did not know about the ruling.However, the panel did hear evidence from forensic accountant Todd Boyd that prior to the $2,000 cash being paid into Mr Curtis’s bank account, he did not have enough money in it to pay $6,300 to CW Entertainments for a CeCe Winans gospel concert, organised as part of Faith-Based Tourism.The concert fee was paid the same day the PLP funds hit his account.