Attorney General moves to have former Registrar disbarred

An application has been filed in the High Court for former High Court Registrar Tamara Gibson-Marks to be disbarred because of improper and unprofessional conduct.

In the application, filed on June 5, Attorney General Judith Jones-Morgan{{more}} gives three reasons why the former registrar should be disbarred and calls on Gibson-Marks to show cause why she should not.

According to court document, suit #105 of 2014, the Attorney General, in an affidavit sworn on June 4, said firstly, that Gibson-Marks, as registrar of the High Court, “conducted herself improperly and unprofessionally, in carrying out her professional duty, by misappropriating money,” held in a trust account at the St Vincent Cooperative Bank.

The second reason given is that Gibson-Marks conducted herself improperly and unprofessionally, in the discharge of her professional duty, by writing to the manager of St Vincent Cooperative Bank, requesting that an account established in 1980, pursuant to a court order, be closed, and a cheque be made in the name of the Registrar of the High Court.

Thirdly, according to the court document, in early May 2014, the former High Court registrar conducted herself improperly and unprofessionally, in the discharge of her professional duty, “by unlawfully converting moneys for her own use, from a mediation programme of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.”

Gibson-Marks, who was appointed High Court registrar by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in 2008, resigned on May 21, after being asked to do so by the attorney general.

A usually reliable source told SEARCHLIGHT that the trust account from which Gibson Marks is alleged to have misappropriated money was set up in April 2013 to hold funds on behalf of beneficiaries in matters before the court.

According to the source, deposits of $519,000, $78,000 and $8,000, totalling $605,000.00, were made 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 totalling in excess of $300,000, 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.

According to a legal source, the second reason given by Jones-Morgan for Gibson-Marks to be disbarred relates to a matter which “goes to the heart of the administration of justice,” although no funds were actually misappropriated.

The source told SEARCHLIGHT that in 1980, a judge made an order that a family property be sold and half of the proceeds be paid to the plaintiffs and the other half put in an account in the name of the registrar, to be paid over to the defendant, who was not defended in court by counsel. According to the source, the defendant in the court matter never claimed the money, leaving the account with a balance which now stands at approximately $200,000.

In May 2014, Gibson-Marks wrote to the St Vincent Cooperative Bank stating that the account should be closed and the proceeds paid in a cheque made out to the Registrar. Attached to the letter from Gibson-Marks was a document dated December 9, 2008, purporting to be a court order, which said that the matter having been concluded and discontinued, the account must now be closed. The document, which purported to be a court order, did not say which judge made the order or who applied to the court for the account to be closed.

According to the source, the bank became suspicious, and instituted investigations which led to Gibson-Marks tendering her resignation.

Our investigations have also revealed that since her resignation, Gibson-Marks has, through her lawyer, deposited $130,000 to the account at St Vincent Cooperative Bank, from which over $300,000 had been misappropriated.

Acting High Court registrar Lekeicha Caesar Toney, on June 4, also swore to an affidavit, in support of the application made by Jones-Morgan.

SEARCHLIGHT has also confirmed that copies of the application to have Gibson-Marks disbarred have been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Audit.

The former high court registrar, a St Lucian national, is said to have left St Vincent the same day she submitted her resignation.