He was treated “harshly” as parties for the vendor “bullied” their way through the transaction.
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However, it was always his intention, said attorney Hilary Nelson, to repay the monies “allegedly stolen”.
“All along I told him (the complainant) the monies would be repaid but he went the whole hog. He went to the Disciplinary Committee (of the Barbados Bar Association); he went public defaming me. The whole gamut.
“But all along I have been making every effort to mobilise the necessary funds and that is still an ongoing process which is likely to bear fruit,” Nelson said.
“I will not shirk my responsibility. I am too proud to benefit from anything that is not mine.”
That was what the attorney told the jury yesterday as he revealed all his accounts had been “blocked” and that he “couldn’t even get my pension from the Bank of Nova Scotia”.
“I’ve been treated harshly. The accounts I use in my practice were all blocked by the Royal Barbados Police Force. The account, which they cannot be sure that any money had been transferred from, my client account, my little Barbados Public Workers’ Cooperative Credit Union account, was blocked,” Nelson said.
“But I didn’t go into any legal action to fight it.” The attorney was giving his defence when his trial continued in the No. 5 Supreme Court.
Nelson, 82, of Bagatelle Terrace, St James, had initially pleaded not guilty to stealing £347 560.96, equivalent to BDS$855 000, belonging to Errol Hewitt of London, England, between November 13, 2018, and March 4, 2019.
Pre-sentencing report He was represented by attorney Daquane Nedd, while Senior State Counsel Tito Holder and State Counsel Maya Kellman prosecuted.
However, he subsequently changed his plea to guilty and was remanded pending a presentencing report. He reappears in court on June 8.
Nelson told the court the purpose of his statement was to highlight “as far as I can remember things that haven’t been raised in evidence”.
He cast blame on the real estate agent, who acted on behalf of the vendor, saying after that man was given the telephone number of his (Nelson’s) assistant, that man called her and told her “he would
make sure I wouldn’t get any work in Barbados”.
The now-convicted attorney said complainant Hewitt had told him there was a checklist of issues to be completed before the sale was finalised.
Nelson said when he drew this to the real estate agent’s attention, the man refused to act.
“So obviously the tail was wagging the dog,” he said from the dock.
He maintained he did everything to make sure that Hewitt could get his property.
“But they behaved like bullies. I am not saying I am God, but with over 50 years’ experience, they were bullying their way through this whole process. I say that to show the atmosphere that led me to being in here.”
The attorney further told the court that a part payment “was not a deposit and you can’t forfeit a part payment”.
He said the other parties “intercepted the transaction” and Hewitt “believed them”.
He said Hewitt then went to the Disciplinary Committee of the Barbados Bar Association, as well as to the police.
“As a direct result of his action, my work virtually dropped off and I had no access to any of my accounts. I was working like a husker, only dealing with cash,” he said, adding the complainant, the real estate agent and the attorney acting for the seller “made this unnecessarily difficult”.
He went on to say he had “been able to sell some property to repay the money allegedly stolen”.
“It has always been my intention to do that. It is still my intention to do that, even though I feel the amounts claimed were unreasonable,” Nelson said. (HLE)