Mayor’s attorney implies the charged add up to nothing
Just after the arraignment, defense lawyers began challenging the merits of the charges. Lead attorney, Michael Peyrefitte was quick to point out that they hold no water since the charges do not exist in law and there is no official legislation or regulation which states that payments of more than fifty dollars have to be approved by the financial controller.
Michael Peyrefitte, Lead Defense Attorney, Mayor Moya Flowers
“The charge sheets that I have been given in my hands speak nothing to two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. What I have in front of me is a charge that does not exist in law. And the next thing is that I have on another charge of the particulars of the charge which also have restrictions which do not exist in law. She’s charged additionally with the uttering, she’s charged with violation of section twenty-three six of the Belize City Council Act chapter eighty five of the laws of Belize, revised 2000. But in the revised 2000 chapter eighty-five Belize City Council Act, there is no such section as twenty three subsection six. So the Crown had asked for an adjournment for two o’clock this afternoon to clarify.”
“Secondly, there is the mention of the violation of the City Council Regulations pursuant to the fifty dollar limit. We are contending that that is not a valuable charge as there is no official legislation or regulation which states that over fifty dollars the City Council have to get approval from some financial controller. It’s not an official regulation and so it is not an offense known to the law if you were to violate, so to speak, that amount of money. The matters of Uttering the False Documents is an indictable offence so it’s possible for them to be heard indictably. The prosecution indicated to the court that that is how they want to go and therefore that is how the magistrate is going.”
“What was passed into law was an Act which states that the Minister of Local Government can appoint a financial controller and the Minister of Local Government can then give directives as to regulations or parameters within which that financial controller can operate. There’s no such thing in the regulation which says or in no Act which mentions any fifty dollars. It is not present anywhere on anything that can be considered legislation. We have gone through the most punishing aspect of it, the police, the Magistrate’s Court, the bail and now what we have to do is just look at what evidence comes and then when the evidence comes we’ll make our arguments as to whether the charges are valid or not. I can say that based on everything she has a good case.”
