DPP to drop charges
Published:Thursday | December 18, 2008 | 4:38 PM
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will have to drop criminal charges against four persons following a ruling today by the Constitutional Court.
The four include two former directors of the collapsed Dyoll Insurance Company Ltd James Morrsion and Mark Thwaites.
The charges have been dropped because the Act under which they were charged was not in effect at the time the offences were said to have been committed.
James Morrsion, Debbie Hyde, Mark Thwaites, and his wife Catherine Parke-Thwaites were charged with breaches of the Financial Services Commission Act.
The charges arose from the collapse of the Dyoll Insurance Company following Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Thwaites and Morrison were charged for failing to provide information to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which is the regulatory body for insurance companies and financial institutions.
Related charges were laid against Debbie Hyde and Catherine Parke-Thwaites.
Mark Thwaites was also accused of recklessly supplying false information under the provisions of the Act.
It was further alleged that he failed to comply with directives that were given on December 17, 2004 by the FSC.
However, the court found that at the time when the alleged offences were committed the provisions of the Financial Services Commission Act relating to the insurance industry were not in effect.
The provisions of the Act relating to the insurance industry came into effect in March 2005.
The offences were allegedly committed between December 2004 and January 2005.
The lawyers for the four argued that the part of the FSC Act relating to the insurance industry, which was brought into effect in March 2005 could not have a retroactive effect.
They said this would breach section 20 (7) of the Jamaican Constitution.
The Court upheld the lawyers’ arguments and granted several declarations.
The declarations include an order to drop the charges under the FSC against the four.
The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General were the defendants.
Attorney-at-law Richard Small who represented the DPP applied for a stay of execution to allow the DPP more time to decide whether to appeal the ruling.
The Constitutional Court comprising Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh and Mr. Justice Lloyd Hibbert granted a stay until January 29.