Seven years jail for bad deed

Lenny Francis Brewster of John John, Laventille was found guilty on both counts at about 10.56 am by a 12-member jury in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court. The jurors returned the verdicts just after one hour of Justice Herbert Volney’s summation.

The prosecution’s case led by Brent Winter was that on December 20, 1999, Brewster went to the Port-of-Spain Prison for the purpose of standing bail for a prisoner. He presented to Justice of the Peace Vernon Nelson, a deed for a property that he owned.

Nelson took the 1993 deed and according to the procedure for bail, had Brewster fill out a Statutory Declaration to the effect that he was the owner, according to the deed. The bail was then processed and the prisoner subsequently released.

However, a report was made to the police and following investigations and a trace of the deed it emerged that Brewster had transferred his interest in the property by deed in 1995, and at the time of the bail knowingly made a false statement. Additionally, because the bail process is a part of the course of public he also breached that law.

Brewster’s attorney Cecil Pope made an instant plea in mitigation asking for his client to be exonerated under section 71 of the Summary Courts Act. Pope told Volney that his client had a heart condition and a sentence should not be imposed on him.

However, Volney was not impressed and made it clear that, those conditions apply only in the Magistrates court as the Act states. Volney then sent Brewster to jail for two years on the first count of making a false declaration and five years for attempting to pervert the course of public justice.