Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Government auditor Andrea Phillips, who was employed to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, has been cleared by the Court of Appeal of her conviction, for conspiracy to defraud the Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI) of $680,000.
Farmer and businessman Ennis Richards, of Lot 178, 6 West Greater Portmore, St. Catherine, who was convicted along with Phillips, his girlfriend, lost his appeal on Thursday.
After they were convicted in May last year, Richards was fined $600,000 or 12 months' imprisonment while Phillips was fined $300,000 or 12 months' imprisonment.
The Court of Appeal comprising President of the Court of Appeal Mr. Justice Paul Harrison, Mr. Justice Howard Cooke and Mrs. Justice Hazel Harris, quashed Phillips' conviction and held that there was no evidence that Phillips conspired with her boyfriend Richards to defraud ICWI.
Attorney-at-law Deborah Martin, who represented Phillips, had argued on appeal that Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey should have upheld the no case submission made at the end of the Crown's case.
Evidence was given at the trial in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court that, in June 2000, Phillips' 1995 Toyota Four Runner motor vehicle was stolen from Flemmington Drive in Meadowbrook, St. Andrew. Richards told Phillips that, while he was drying off the motor vehicle in the driveway, three gunmen held him up and took it away.
Farming business
Phillips said she and Richards purchased the motor vehicle, but Richards used it in his farming business. She said she insured the motor vehicle in her name alone because of the discounts she got.
Richards and Phillips made reports to the Constant Spring police station and Phillips reported the matter to ICWI which subsequently honoured the claim.
The car was found scrapped and Phillips bought the salvage from ICWI. Phillips said she gave Richards money to have the motor vehicle repaired. Richards took the salvage to an auto mechanic in Yallahs, St. Thomas.
The police and investigators for ICWI went to Yallahs and discovered that original parts bearing the manufacturer's identification marks for the stolen motorvehicle were being used to repair it.
