Hinds never in debt

LAVENTILLE EAST/Morvant MP Fitzgerald Hinds was never in debt to the National Insurance Board (NIB). Last week, UNC chairman Wade Mark alleged that Hinds was $260,000 in debt to the NIB, but Hinds dismissed his claims. In a statement yesterday, the NIB said Hinds and another individual applied for a mortgage loan in October 1983 (before he was an MP), to purchase a residential property at Maracas, St Joseph. The application was made through the NIB’s authorised agent and approved, and the applicants signed an agreement outlining the terms of the mortgage. A legal firm was contacted by the NIB’s mortgage agent to prepare and register all documents that would give effect to the proposed loan.

The NIB said the lawyers prepared the necessary conveyance and mortgage loan documents and requested through the NIB’s mortgage agent that the NIB forward a $270,000 cheque to them on behalf of the mortgagors to facilitate completion of the transaction. The NIB remitted a $270,000 cheque to its mortgage agent on April 2, 1984. On May 11, 1984, the NIB’s mortgage agent wrote the lawyers enclosing a $268,403.28 cheque payable to them, which represented the net proceeds of the loan and outlining the deductions. “However, although the attorneys received the said funds, they failed to register the conveyance and the mortgage.

“The funds disbursed by the NIB were not made payable to Hinds so he could not access the said funds at any time. “Hinds did not obtain title to the property because the attorneys did not register the conveyance. Therefore, Hinds is in no way indebted to the NIB for the monies disbursed to the attorneys for the said property. “It is incorrect to say that the NIB forgave Hinds’ mortgage indebtedness since no such indebtedness ever existed,” the NIB said. The NIB apologised to Hinds for any inconvenience which this situation may have caused him.