Cheerful United Progressive Party supporters swarmed defendants Harold Lovell, Dr Jacqui Quinn and Willmoth Daniel moments after Magistrate Conliffe Clarke ruled the trio did not have a case to answer on any of the four charges in the bus probe
The United Progressive Party (UPP) said a magistrate has vindicated three of its senior members following the dismissal of embezzlement, corruption, fraudulent conversion and larceny charges against Senator Harold Lovell, Dr Jacqui Quinn and Willmoth Daniel.
“Thank you Jesus,” were the words uttered by Dr Quinn after Magistrate Conliffe told the trio they were free of the four charges brought against them in 2016.
Smiles erupted from the party’s members and supporters as Magistrate Clarke ruled that the “evidence was scant to say the least”. He added that the prosecution had failed to make its case in areas to include criminal intent and the purposes for which the buses were being used after three of the Daewoo buses donated by the government of South Korea were registered at Transport Board in the names of the three defendants.
The magistrate also said it was difficult to identify a virtual complainant in the larceny case.
A large crowd of supporters waited outside as all available seats in the courtroom went mostly to the UPP’s executive. Cheers erupted when one of the six attorneys – Leon Chaku Symister — delivered the news.
“We have maintained from the start that this was political persecution and that the charges brought against our leaders was a shameful attempt by the Gaston Browne administration to destroy the UPP. It has failed and we are satisfied that the magistrate was right on point,” Symister said.
“We are not surprised because from day one the evidence did not show any criminal intent and that is what the honourable magistrate agreed to; that there is no evidence that any criminality existed when these buses were with the members of Parliament and being used for their community.”