By Damion Mitchell, Freelance WriterPORUS, Manchester:
ELIAS AZAN, 43, was fined $200,000 or six months in prison at hard labour when he reappeared in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday on charges of fraudulent conversion.
Azan, who was charged with defrauding the Jamaica Cancer Society of $507,849, pleaded guilty when his case was first heard on October 23. The court was told that in August of this year, while the chairman of the society's Manchester branch and her deputy were on vacation overseas, Mr. Azan, who was the society's treasurer, asked the organisation's secretary, who was also preparing for her overseas vacation, to sign cheque leaves in the event that utility bills were to be paid.
On their return, the society's financial statements were examined and the irregularities were discovered. Mr. Azan reportedly sought to explain then that the monies were used to upgrade the society's computers. However, he could not produce corresponding bills.
The police were called in and Mr. Azan was arrested on charges of fraudulent conversion. He was subsequently offered bail in the amount of $300,000 and ordered to surrender his travel documents. Since then, Mr. Azan has repaid the amount in full to the Jamaica Cancer Society.
In his petition, attorney-at-law Lennox Gayle, who represented Mr. Azan, begged that the court forego the sentencing, given the fact that Mr. Azan has paid over the full amount in restitution.
R.M. Marva McDonald-Bishop then interjected: "... but Mr. Gayle, the fact that he has paid back the amount in restitution does not mean that he has not committed the crime. He has to be sentenced."
The attorney then proceeded to request that the RM take into account the fact that Mr. Azan has never had any previous criminal charges against him, that he has been a servant of the community, through his involvement in several charitable and community organisations, and that he has expressed remorse about the situation. "... he is very 'upstanding' in his community Your Honour and against this background I would like to ask that you be very lenient in handing down your sentence," he implored.
However, the RM said that it was "almost unforgivable" that Mr. Azan had defrauded an organisation such as the Cancer Society.
"For you to have been elected treasurer means that the people trusted you with their money," she noted, adding that "the fact that you were able to pay back the sum in restitution in such a short time means that you could have done without it." She continued, "I am upset about it. We can't even fully research cancer because there is no money and still you go t'ief de people dem money."
RM McDonald-Bishop said, "what you have done is like putting a gun to the head of a cancer patient. You are just like a robber on the street and I have to teach you a lesson, so that you do not do it again or that nobody attempts to do it," she said.
Since his release from custody on October 24, Mr. Azan has resigned as treasurer of the Jamaica Cancer Society and has also terminated his membership from all other charitable organisations of which he was a part.
