Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE COURT of Appeal has expressed disgust that a man had to wait for five years to have his name cleared because officers in a Resident Magistrate's Court were tardy in handling transcript of his trial.
Michael Hylton, former director of the Sugar Industry Research Institute (SIRI), gave notice of appeal in October 1999 after he was convicted of conspiracy to defraud. The transcript of the proceedings in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court did not reach the Court of Appeal until September last year.
UNACCEPTABLE CONDUCT
In quashing Hylton's conviction and setting aside the sentence, the court said "in this particular case, the conduct of the relevant officers is wholly unacceptable and ought not to be repeated". Mr. Justice Seymour Panton, Mr. Justice Karl Harrison and Mrs. Justice Zaila McCalla said in their unanimous decision that the court was at a loss as to why the case had taken such a long time to come before the court.
The judges disclosed that from time to time the court experienced similar delays in cases being sent from the Resident Magistrate's Court.
Hylton and businessman Roy Paharsingh of Paharsingh Engineering Works were charged jointly with two counts of conspiracy to defraud the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA) of money.
CONVICTION
They were convicted of falsely pretending between 1994 to 1995 that Paharsingh had paid customs duties on imported goods. They were convicted of conspiring together to defraud by causing the SIA to pay grossly exaggerated prices to Paharsingh for imported goods.
They were given suspended sentences after they were convicted in 1999. Paharsingh was convicted of a total of four charges. The Court of Appeal quashed three of Paharsingh's convictions. The court affirmed Paharsingh's conviction and suspended sentence in respect of the count charging him with intent to defraud the Sugar Industry Authority of $203,000 in January 1995. Paharsingh had falsely pretended that the money was payable to him in respect of customs duties for goods he had imported on behalf of the Sugar Industry Research Institute.
