ThwaitesGarwin Davis, Assistant News Editor
Troubled attorney, Ronald Thwaites, may have breached aspects of the accounting regulations of the legal profession and could be facing serious disciplinary actions including the possibility of disbarment, The Sunday Gleaner has learnt.
The General Legal Council (GLC), the disciplinary arm of the legal profession, will, according to sources, be looking at whether Mr. Thwaites who admitted last week to have not handed over funds collected on behalf of the Postal Services in a timely manner, had violated its regulations.
"The GLC has no choice but to look into this," one senior member of the disciplinary body and who requested anonymity, told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday. "These are very serious charges and whether it's Mr. Thwaites or anybody else we cannot have a double standard or give the impression of having one."
Asked about the penalty(ies) for violating the regulations, the source notes, "it could range from suspension and depending on the severity it could also lead to the violator being disbarred from the profession."
The Accounting Regulations stipulate that two separate accounts, one for the attorney/firm and another in the name of the client be held by attorneys. Money collected on behalf of the client and deposited into his/her account cannot be used at the leisure of the attorney/firm. The regulations were put in place to deter attorneys from defrauding clients and according to the GLC, to restore public trust and confidence in the legal profession.
Mr. Thwaites who resigned last week as the People's National Party Member of Parliament for Central Kingston amid allegations of improprieties, told The Sunday Gleaner on Thursday that several cheques collected on behalf of the Postal Services had inadvertently been lodged into his law firm's account, noting he had accepted full responsibility for what he called a genuine mistake.
"I have made it clear that once the error was discovered the money should have been returned promptly and this did not happen," Mr. Thwaites said. "I offered to pay interest but the offer was declined."
Admission of error
But according to the GLC source, "an admission of error, albeit a belated one, may simply not be good enough. A violation, regardless if restitution was made, is a violation and mind you I am not saying one took place," the source said. "What I do know though is that on the surface it doesn't look good. If Mr. Thwaites deposited money in his client's account then it should have been handed over promptly and not in two instalments as he has admitted. Returning the money in two instalments would suggest that the funds had been touched. If it was deposited into his company's private account then that raised even more serious questions."
Postmaster General, Dr. Blossom O'Meally-Nelson, who last week solicited the services of Auditor-General, Adrian Strachan, to audit the entire postal company agreed.
Asked by The Sunday Gleaner last week that if the fact that funds collected by Mr. Thwaites were paid over to the postal company in instalments would suggest that they had been used, she said, "What do you think?"
Dr. O'Meally-Nelson also revealed that there were no signatures on the cheques and that the main purpose of the audit was to determine if irregularities had taken place.
