A prosecutor urged the “unsung heroes” on the jury in a government fraud trial to convict Kyril Burrows and his wife of robbing the public purse.Susan Mulligan said of the alleged crimes, in which the pair are accused of pocketing more than $553,000 of taxpayers’ money: “These are serious charges.“These people are alleged to have lived large on public money for several years. Nothing in the evidence casts any doubt at all, not even a reasonable one, on any of the Crown’s evidence or exhibits.”Ms Mulligan said during her closing speech that the evidence proves Mr Burrows, 48, and his wife, 49, did not just dip into the public purse as a one-off crime. In fact, she alleged, Works and Engineering buildings manager Mr Burrows repeatedly funnelled government cash into paying for renovations to his private home at Turkey Hill, St George’s.Meanwhile Mrs Bean-Burrows’s healthcare companies are said to have frequently overbilled government for goods that were not ordered, and services that were not provided.Mr Burrows is further alleged to have used government purchase orders to buy three television sets for himself. The criminal charges they face cover the period January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2009.Ms Mulligan said: “This was a systematic ripping-off of the people of Bermuda; hundreds of thousands of dollars.“In order for any society to function, for any community to survive, we must all ultimately be accountable to each other for our actions.“Please hold the defendants accountable for their actions, as made out by the evidence. Hold them accountable for their crimes; crimes committed against this community.”The fraud trial began eleven weeks and two days ago. The eight women and four men of the jury have listened as hundreds of invoices, payment certificates, cheque stubs and e-mails have been detailed by the prosecution and defence.Acknowledging the sacrifice the jurors have made, Ms Mulligan said: “To acknowledge that this has been an ordeal for all of you is not enough. You are the unsung heroes in this story.“You have turned up every day with amazing good humour in the face of often tedious evidence, and delays in and out of the courtroom.“You have struggled to maintain your daily lives, maintain your family commitments and hold onto your jobs and also do your public duty. It’s impressive.”Ms Mulligan stressed that the defendants, who do not have a lawyer and are defending themselves, do not have to prove anything.The pair called a number of witnesses, at times asking questions such as what day of the week was February 6, 2006, and whether February followed January.Ms Mulligan suggested: “The issues that were raised [by the defence] were raised more to deceive and distract you rather than raise any real issues.”She alleged that the couple placed fabricated “e-mails” before Permanent Secretary Robert Horton, one of the first prosecution witnesses .Mr Horton told the jury he did not remember ever sending or receiving the e-mails, which purported to show that Mr Burrows had permission to take the televisions at the centre of the case home.After that, the trial was halted and police searched the Burrows’s home in Pembroke, seizing a number of computers.When the case resumed, British computer forensic expert Paul Weall said the “e-mails” appeared to have been created by cutting and pasting real e-mails from the government server and manipulating them in the Microsoft Word programme.The documents were stored in files entitled “deception e-mail evidence”.Ms Mulligan described the documents as “false evidence”, and said they are of significance to the jury in their deliberations.“It’s evidence, long since the commission of the crime, that speaks to the guilty minds of the defendants, and I say both of them because they both relied on those e-mails they presented, those purported e-mails,” she said.She went on to tell the jury: “It’s open to you to dismiss everything the defendants tried to present in this court.”Mr Burrows and his wife deny all the charges, which allege that they cheated government, obtained money transfers and property by deception, laundered money and participated in false accounting.They are due to deliver their closing speeches today and a verdict is anticipated on Monday.