By Nagra Plunkett, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
MONTEGO BAY businessman and former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) West Central St. James constituency caretaker, Anthony 'Tony Dillon' Lewin has been convicted for fraud and is to be sentenced in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on December 4.
The matter for which he was tried involved the fraudulent conversion of $1 million in a 1995 land deal that was never effected.
Resident Magistrate Evon Brown who pronounced the verdict, also remanded Lewin Thursday in police custody until his sentencing.
However, Justice Donald McIntosh yesterday offered the businessman bail in the sum of $2.5 million after his attorney John Graham made an application in the Supreme Court.
SURETY
As a condition of his bail, the person standing surety for Lewin has to pay the amount in cash or by manager's cheque.
The Gleaner learnt that the businessman took up the bail offer yesterday afternoon at the Montego Bay Courthouse.
Attorney-at-law Andrew Irving, who prosecuted the case on the request of his clients, Desmond and Verona Steele, said the matter dated back to May 1995.
He said the Steeles paid a deposit of $1 million to Mr. Lewin for the purchase of a $3.3 million property at Deans Place in Montego Bay.
The complainants, who were tenants of the property at the time, made enquiries to complete the transaction and was told by Mr. Lewin that the premises, which was owned by his wife, was no longer for sale. Several attempts were subsequently made by the Steeles to have the money returned but it was not forthcoming.
LEGAL ADVICE
Mr. Irving said that even though the property in question was sold in March 1999, his clients were never reimbursed. "After a while my clients, being frustrated did not pay rent for about a year. Mr. Lewin is trying to use this as a claim of right to the money," he said. "At the most part this (unpaid rent) would add up to $140,000 leaving $860,000." The attorney said the Steeles sought legal advice in 1998 and he later applied for a fiat from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have the matter privately prosecuted in the criminal court.
