A judge has dismissed an application by two officials from the Montserrat Football Association (MFA) to strike five tax offences from an indictment.
MFA president Vincent Cassell and general secretary Tandica Hughes face six charges, including conspiracy to cheat the inland revenue of taxes, and failure to file tax returns.
They sought to have the summary offences moved to the Magistrate’s Court, leaving only the indictable conspiracy charge to be tried in Montserrat High Court.
However, Justice Brian Cottle in his judgment said Montserrat’s Criminal Procedure Code allows related offences of all types to be joined in a single indictment.
He denied their application, stating it would be “wasteful of resources” to have two sets of proceedings to deal with similar offences.
Six tax charges
The case was heard in Montserrat High Court on 15 October and Justice Cottle, an acting high court judge, delivered his ruling on 24 October.
He outlined the six charges, the first of which alleged conspiracy between the defendants to cheat the inland revenue of taxes lawfully due.
Three of the counts charge Cassell with failing to render tax returns for 2017, 2018 and 2019, while one count charges Hughes with failing to render a tax return for 2018.
The final count accuses Cassell of failing to deduct and pay EC$20,250 in tax on income of $67,500 received on 31 August, 2018.
Justice Cottle explained that the first count is an indictable offence, which is usually tried in a high court by a jury, while the others are summary offences, which are usually heard in a magistrates court.
Judicial precedent
Defence counsel – Dane Hamilton KC and Chivone Gerald – argued that the summary offences were improperly included in the indictment.
They referenced a previous case heard in Montserrat High Court in June this year of ‘The King v John Ryan and Others’.
In that case Justice Dale Fitzpatrick ruled that summary offences fall exclusively within the Magistrates Court’s jurisdiction.
“Apart from relying on this judicial precedent, counsel did not advance any other arguments in support of his application,” Cottle said in his judgment.
He went on to say he had examined the legislation and the authorities, and “with the greatest of respect for my brother judge” disagreed with his colleague’s interpretation.
‘Wasteful of resources’
Justice Cottle explained that the Montserrat’s Criminal Procedure Code says that any offence may be charged together in the same indictment.
However, this is only the case if the offences are founded on the same facts, or form or are part of a series of offences of the same or similar character.
“In this case it would be wasteful of resources and contrary to the desirability of processing criminal matters promptly to have two sets of criminal proceedings,” he said.
The judge added that because legislation allows for the joinder of summary offences in an indictment, the high court “must be able to deal with all the counts properly included”.
He dismissed the MFA officials’ application to split the charges.
