Family never heard from lawyer after sale of willed land completed

The daughter of deceased Arthur O’Neal Thomas testified before the High Court they have yet to receive any money from the 2007 sale of land willed to her and her siblings.

Hortensia Ward nee Thomas took the witness stand in the No. 2 Supreme Court on Monday and gave the evidence in the theft and money laundering trial of attorney-at-law Norman Leroy Lynch.

Lynch is facing nine jurors, accused of engaging in money laundering in the disposal of $457 634, being the proceeds of crime, between June 22, 2007 and December 21, 2008.

It is also alleged that over the same period, he stole $407 634 being the proceeds of a FirstCaribbean International Bank cheque made payable to Leroy Lynch and belonging to the estate of Thomas.

The lawyer is further charged with stealing another $50 000 between August 18, 2005 and December 21, 2008, also belonging to Thomas’ estate.

Ward told the court that Lynch was the attorney representing her and her two brothers in the sale of property at Hopeland, St George which was willed to them by their father.

She testified that the three of them decided to sell the property in 2005 and went to Lynch’s office to prepare the necessary documents. The selling price, she said, was $500 000 with a deposit to be made of $50 000 by the purchaser and the remainder due on completion of the sale.

“My two brothers and I never received any money,” Ward told the court presided over by Justice Randall Worrell, adding that once the sale was completed in 2007, “we never heard from Mr Lynch” despite numerous attempts to contact him via telephone and see him in person.

Responding to a question by Senior Crown Counsel Olivia Davis, the witness disclosed that they subsequently made a report to the police on the matter and gave them their father’s will.

Meantime, Nicole Codrington, who is a junior analyst at FirstCaribbean International Bank but was previously a customer service representative, disclosed that she dealt with and processed a transaction involving the deposit of a cheque which was made to Lynch’s account for $407 634. The funds, she said, came from the client account of David Thompson at Thompson and Associates.

However, under cross-examination by Lynch’s attorney Marlon Gordon, Codrington stated that she could not recall who handed over the cheque.

Another state witness was Cheryl Small, one of Lynch’s legal secretaries from 1981 to 2007. She stated that she was one of eight workers at the office but it was no longer functional.

Small said she prepared the agreement for sale in the matter on trial but she never dealt with making any deposits of money on the accused’s behalf or with accounts.

To her recollection, a cheque did come to the office from the purchaser’s attorney.

“It will have to be the final cheque because that is when the client will call and ask about the status of the [matter],” she said, adding that whenever cheques came to the office they would “go with the file on Mr Lynch’s desk for him to deal with it”.

Attorney-at-law Gail Prescod was the purchaser’s attorney while she was with the chambers of Thompson and Associates.

She stated that the $50 000 deposit was paid over to Mr Lynch as well as the balance of the purchase price.