Account held in trust by Registrar left with balance of $5.00

A bank account, which was held in trust by the registrar of the High Court, is under scrutiny, as investigators probe the circumstances leading to the resignation of former registrar Tamara Gibson-Marks.

The account in question was set up at a local bank in April 2013 to hold funds on behalf of beneficiaries {{more}} in matters before the court, a well-placed source told SEARCHLIGHT.

According to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, a total of $605,000 was deposited to the account, and over the course of about a year, payments amounting to approximately $250,000 were legitimately made to lawyers and their clients, using money from the account.

However, those were not the only withdrawals.

Several times monthly, over the same period, withdrawals, mostly in cash, which appear unrelated to matters being settled by the court, were also made from the account, the source told SEARCHLIGHT.

The final withdrawal, made in March 2014, was in the form of a bank draft for approximately $22,000, and left the account with a balance of $5.00.

These withdrawals, which investigators say appear to be unauthorized, total in excess of $300,000.

Investigators are also said to be carefully studying documentation pertaining to at least one other trust account, which was opened over 30 years ago at the same bank, to determine if any wrong doing took place, the source said.

Gibson-Marks, who was appointed high court registrar by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in 2008, resigned last week, after being asked to do so by Attorney General Judith Jones-Morgan.

According to another usually reliable source, the attorney general requested Gibson-Mark’s resignation during a half-hour long meeting at which another member of the attorney general’s staff was also present.

SEARCHLIGHT has been informed that Gibson-Marks turned in her resignation and left the country for St Lucia on May 21.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, in a brief interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Monday, said state agencies acted promptly once they were made aware of the allegations against Gibson-Marks.

He said the Director of Audit, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police are “actively seized” of the matter and have launched an investigation.

Deputy registrar Lakeisha Caesar Toney is now acting High Court registrar.