By Elesha George
Well-known attorney Warren Cassell has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison, after a nine-member jury found him guilty of concealing the proceeds of criminal conduct.
He will serve his sentence at Her Majesty’s Prison in his homeland of Montserrat where he was charged with the crime.
Cassell faced a maximum of 14 years under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1999. He is expected to serve at least one and a half years behind bars.
Between January 2007 and November 2008, the attorney is believed to have dishonestly concealed or disguised EC$855,380.54 by transferring funds from an investor’s account into an incorporated account for the sale of land.
According to the charge sheet, Cassel dishonestly represented that he was a legitimate director of Providence Estate Limited and was legally entitled to sell land at the estate. He is said to have fraudulently filed a change of directors application with the Companies Registry regarding said estate, and received funds into an incorporated business for the sale of land at Providence Estate for the purpose of avoiding prosecution for an offence or the making or enforcement of a confiscation order.
Montserratian-born Cassell, who has long worked as an attorney in Antigua, represented himself during the proceedings. His Lordship Justice Stanley John presided over the trial which lasted just over a week. Richard Jory QC, DPP Oris Sullivan and Henry Gordon appeared for the Crown.
The charge stems from a case that was previously tried before the Privy Council almost a decade ago.