A St Michael man has been convicted of theft and criminal deception after abandoning a repayment agreement on the advice of an unlicensed legal adviser, prompting a warning from the island’s chief public prosecutor about the dangers of “mock lawyers”.
Ronny Henderson Greenidge appeared in the No. 4 Supreme Court and admitted to dishonestly obtaining $52 000 from Beulah Sobers by falsely representing that he had the approval of the Town and Country Development Planning Office to build a house at Sturges, St Thomas, and to stealing the $52 000 belonging to Sobers. The offences occurred on October 27, 2010.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC told the court that in 2021 an agreement was reached between Greenidge and Sobers for the repayment of the money. But after Greenidge paid back $40 000, his payments became inconsistent because he followed the counsel of an unlicensed person.
Seale said: “Having spoken to Mr Greenidge on his recalcitrance, he indicated something that told me why you should really get a lawyer. A lawyer had managed this before and had given him instructions, and the way the matter was being managed by the [since retired] Justice [Randall] Worrell was he would pay back the money -because that was what the client wanted -and at the end of the repayment, the Department of Public Prosecutions would issue a warrant of discontinuance against him. We were not interested in getting a conviction against him.
“Now he had a lawyer, but somebody told him, and that is why you have to be careful with these mock lawyers, that the receipt he was getting was not an official receipt and started to suggest that some skullduggery was going on.”
The DPP explained, however, that an official receipt was only issued if a person was convicted.
“The reason why he could not get an official receipt was simply because the matter was being managed by the court. He had not gotten a conviction so we were only giving him unofficial receipts so that when the matter was finished, it could be discontinued. He listened to the words of some fireside lawyer and stopped paying.
“Now he has found himself in a position now where Your Honour does not plan to enter an agreement like that at all because certainly if they were thinking that some skulduggery was involved then and insinuating that the court was involved in skulduggery, the only formal way to manage this matter is for him to plead guilty, get a conviction and then the court can manage it through the fees and fines where he can get an official receipt when he pays it.
“This is one example of being misled by people who do not know about the law, who do not practice law but feel they know more than others. Otherwise this matter could have been disposed of, he would have no conviction, paid off the money and it would have gone out the way.”
The court heard that Sobers was a Barbadian living overseas who decided that upon retirement she would return home to live and therefore wanted to build a house here. She contacted Greenidge with the view of having him construct the house as he was a contractor, who at the time owned a firm. Having made the agreement with him, she went to the bank and received a $40 000 cheque and a $12 000 cheque from the credit union and handed these over to Greenidge before returning to the United States.
She realised, upon checking on the progress of the house, that there was no movement, which caused her concern, and she made attempts to reach Greenidge which proved futile. Her intention then became to get back her money and, after all else failed, she reported the matter to the police. He was subsequently taken into custody and, during an interview, indicated that he still planned to build the home. Investigations showed that he did not have all of the approvals necessary to move the construction forward at that stage.
Attorney Sian Lange appeared as a friend of the court on behalf of Greenidge and requested a pre-sentence report.
The convicted man paid $3 600 of the $12 000 remaining balance and was told to return to court on July 20.
(JB)
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