If you give surety for a defendant and he absconds be prepared to pay the price.

Last month in iNews Briefs (“If you stand surety for a defendant and he absconds you must pay up Cayman Islands woman learns” – http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/inews-briefs-251/) a woman was made to pay up $1,500 when Ryan Bateman failed to attend his court appearance.

Bateman had been accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a woman – the same woman who had made the complaint left the Cayman Islands with him!

Now it looks likely another person is going to suffer the same fate.

Arthur Russell Screaton was charged with two counts of false accounting and two counts of theft whilst being employed at Rackham’s Pub and Restaurant on North Church Street, George Town during 2010. Screaton is alleged to have stolen more than $10,000 from the business.

And Screaton was given back his travel documents to allow him to travel. Screaton is Canadian!

Why were his travel documents given back to him? They were ordered to be seized and then given back when the bail terms were changed.

Maybe the Cayman Judicial services are pleased these charged persons who are nationals of another country do abscond. They can pocket the surety, don’t have to go ahead with a costly trial and if they were able to obtain a prosecution the country would then have to pay for the criminal’s accommodation at the Northward or Fairbanks hotels.

This is a win win situation. They’ve gone and not ever likely to come back.

Surety is asked for by the court to ensure, as far as possible that the charged person returns when he/she is supposed to. Giving the charged persons back their travel documents in the Cayman Islands – ISLAND -doesn’t seem to me very sure these documents won’t be used.

And ….

Didn’t I tell you in my last Editorial (December 4) “Background checks” we had received a link to a website “homefacts” showing a conviction of a male on July 8 2004 for “Attempted Sexual Abuse 1st Degree: Contact By Forcible Compulsion”. The man is listed as “Registered Sex Offender”?

Yes I did. It was in connection with “a prison officer has been suspended from duty because, following an anonymous tip MAY have a criminal conviction stemming from an incident that occurred over a decade ago”.

Ricardo Fisher from Jamaica, the man listed as the sex offender, was formerly charged of providing false information on the application to the Prison Service and immediately resigned.

No doubt if he does ever go to court he will not have his travel documents taken away and some friend of his will stand surety for him if that is a condition of bail and it will be goodbye to Ricardo.

But who at the Prison Service carried out the background check on Fisher? How did he obtain a police clearance certificate and if I could check the website that provides information on convicted criminals in the USA (it took a mere five seconds) how could he be given a job as a prison officer?

Will there be an inquiry?

What do you think?