Cayman Islands Grand Court Justice Charles Quin found Dave Bryan, business partner of Pirates Week Festival director Bernie Bush, guilty of fraud and forging Mr. Bush’s signature on a loan application. He sentenced Bryan on April 19th to five years in prison for defrauding Foster’s Food Fair of over $300,000 over a bread roll swindle and one year for the signature fraud that involved Cayman Islands Development Bank. Judge Quin gave Bryan a further 12 months over a guilty plea for a charge of cheque kiting to run concurrently with the other terms.

Bryan was Mr. Bush’s partner in Cayman Bakery and the judge said, “I am compelled  to state that there are very few  mitigating  features  aside from the Defendant’s  previous good character, and, regrettably,  there are some serious aggravating features. The pre-meditation, the planning – relating  to invoices,  deliveries  and other matters  – as  well  as  the  protracted  nature of  the  Defendant’s  criminal activity, all compose a shocking picture of single-handed  deception.

“The  Defendant  perpetrated  this deception  and fraud for over 12 months. He saw the opportunity  and he callously  used many people – with no thought to the possible consequences  of his actions on their lives – in order to obtain the inflated  money transfers from Foster’s Food Fair.”

Many other people, including Mr. Bush, the employees at Cayman Bakery, employees at Foster’s and his own step daughter, had suffered as a result of Bryan’s crime.

Once the fraud had come to light, Bryan tried to blame other people. Justice Quin said, “The   Defendant   prevailed    upon   the   good   nature   of   several employees,   and  long-term   employees   of  Foster ‘s   Food  Fair,  who  then unwittingly participated in  the   Defendant’s  deception  by  processing  the inflated  Cayman   Bakery  invoices to the  Foster’s  accounting department for payment.

“On the 30^th and 31^st  May 2008  when Foster’s Food  Fair stumbled upon  this deception the Defendant immediately tried to blame a Cayman Bakery employee who was  a stand-in driver, and who had  been on the job for only one week. In order to conceal his own culpability the  Defendant cynically went through the charade of taking legal advice to support his dismissal of the stand-in driver, who was subsequently arrested and detained. This employee was ultimately deported from the Cayman Islands. It goes  without saying that this employee suffered significant mental  anguish after coming to the Cayman Islands to take up fulltime employment to support  himself and his family.

“The Defendant ‘s conduct caused his business partner, Mr. Bush, great anguish and upset, and he had to close down Cayman Bakery, which meant the loss of employment for several employees. Additionally, there was the resulting damage sustained by Mr. Bush, who now had his reputation sullied and had to struggle for many months to avoid bankruptcy.

“As a direct result of the Defendant’s conduct, a cloud of suspicion was cast over a long-term employee of Foster’s Food Fair, who ultimately also had his employment with Foster’s terminated.

“Accordingly, the Defendant ‘s conduct has caused  untold  anguish  and distress to many  persons  and their families, and it is hard to imagine  a more  cynical and prolonged course  of dishonest conduct.”

Bryan’s own home life had also suffered with his marriage breaking up, his step daughter having to leave college because he was funding her education, his own son hadn’t been able to graduate and he had lost the family home as he was now unable to pay the mortgage.

Justice Quin said, “The Defendant has prevailed on the good nature of staff at Foster’s, who had trusted him and unwittingly assisted him in the perpetration of the fraud, in which he had falsified invoices and documents relating to bread, cinnamon rolls and Easter buns.”

Over a two year period the investigation found that Bryan had delivered only a fraction of the goods for which the bakery invoiced the supermarket and which in turn Foster’s had paid.

The judge described the story of Bryan’s offences as a “shocking picture of deception” and “it is harder to imagine a more cynical and protracted crime in which the Defendant callously breached the trust that so many people had in you.”

We understand Bryan’s attorney will be appealing both the convictions and the sentence.