Convicted lawyer accepts sentence

Jailed attorney Cheraine Nicole Parris has had a change of heart and will no longer fight her four-year sentence before the Barbados Court of Appeal.

When the convict appeared before the three-member panel of Justices Rajendra Narine, Jefferson Cumberbatch and Francis Belle this morning, her attorney Michael Lashley Q.C. said based on his consultation with his client “her desire is to abandon the appeal respectfully”.

Justice Narine then granted leave for Parris to withdraw the appeal, in which Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale was representing the respondents.

The convicted attorney had previously signaled an intention to appeal her sentence on a single ground that it was “unreasonable”.

She was sentenced in September 2020 by Justice Randall Worrell to four years in prison for stealing $302,000 belonging to Ashleigh Morrison between April 15 and August 16, 2010. Another four-year sentence was also imposed to run concurrent to the first, for engaging in money laundering by conducting a series of transactions in moving the cash, being the proceeds of crime.

The money had been earmarked for the purchase of a condominium where Morrison was residing. The complainant had deposited in Parris’ account, a total of $462,000. Of that amount, $160,000 had been repaid in two separate payments– $150,000 in the first instance and then $10,000.