Customs officer Diallo Sharrieff was wrongly suspended from his job and never had any intention of keeping $900 he took from an ATM machine, his lawyer claimed last night.

Charles Richardson told that his client did remove the money from the Capital G cash point on Church Street, Hamilton, in March, but that it was as the result of a ?misunderstanding?.

Mr. Richardson alleged that Mr. Sharrieff was suspended from duty without pay after Police spoke to him about the matter - in which another person?s card is believed to have been in the machine - and decided not to proceed any further.

He said the suspension was the result of an unofficial phone call from someone he believed to be within the Police force to Mr. Sharrieff?s employers and was based on ?the strength of a shadowy, nebulous comment?.

?He was suspended because someone apparently told the Collector of Customs and the Secretary of the Cabinet that charges would be brought,? he said.

?They suspended him wrongly. That?s why they had to give him his job back and reimburse all the pay that he lost.?

Mr. Richardson said the alleged incident at the ATM machine, revealed in yesterday?s edition of this newspaper, took place on a Friday evening. He said the bank contacted Mr. Sharrieff the following Monday morning after which he returned the cash.

?There was a misunderstanding by which he ended up with money which came from another ATM customer?s account,? said Mr. Richardson, who declined to go into detail about how the error occurred.

?When he realised that there was a mistake, he took that money, the very money that he got from the ATM machine, and secured it in an envelope. He took the money and set it aside and never spent it.?

He added: ?Mr. Sharrieff voluntarily spoke to the Police. They contacted him early Monday morning. He was investigated. He never admitted theft to anybody. Stealing is taking something and when you take it you intend to keep it. There was never any evidence of that. That?s why he wasn?t prosecuted. He has done nothing wrong.

?He is an honourable customs officer who has always done his job with the highest degree of responsibility. He is a young man who is really trying to do the right thing.?

He said the account holder whose money was taken ?accepted the explanation and moved on?.

Mr. Richardson sent a letter to Assistant Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall-Bean on June 22 stating that Mr. Sharrieff?s suspension was unlawful and erroneous.

He wrote that unless the situation was resolved, proceedings would be filed in the Supreme Court.

He said he received a letter back admitting that Mr. Sharrieff should not have been suspended and that he was to report to the Collector of Customs for duty.

Mr. Richardson also alleged last night that the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) failed to represent Mr. Sharrieff in the internal disciplinary proceedings.

He said: ?The BPSU laid down like a bunch of sissies when the man went to them for assistance. They said ?oh, there is nothing they can do about it?. It was me who got him his job back. All he wanted back was his job and the lost pay.?

Armell Thomas, BPSU president, described Mr. Richardson?s comments about the union as ?childish?.

He added: ?We represented Mr. Sharrieff all the way. Normally when charges go through prosecution we don?t get involved. He never came back to us that his were dropped.

?Once we found out there were no charges we wrote to ask for Mr. Sharrieff to be reinstated and all his monies reinstated back to him, which was done.?

Ms Hall-Bean could not be contacted last night. She said earlier this week that the Government did not comment on internal personnel matters.

The Collector of Customs, Winifred Fostine DeSilva, has not responded to emails and telephone messages left for her this week. Capital G did not respond to a request for comment.