By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE SUPREME Court yesterday granted an order for a property in York Town, Clarendon, valued at $6.8 million, to be confiscated by the Crown under the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act.
The property consists of a house belonging to Gairy Thompson of York Town, who had pleaded guilty to charges of possession of and dealing in ganja, after the police found the drug on the property in 1997. Thompson was fined.
Thompson's property is the second to be ordered forfeited since the Act came into effect on August 15, 1994.
FIRST PROPERTY FORFEITED
The first property forfeited was that of east Kingston businessman Errol Leys, 45, (nicknamed 'Bobby Reds'), whose house went to the Crown in 1998. The house, which is at Sterling Castle, East Kirkland Heights, St. Andrew, was valued then at $6.5 million. Leys was convicted of possessing 15 kilos of hash oil, a derivative of ganja, dealing in the drug and the illegal possession of a firearm. The Act permits the Government to confiscate property gained illicitly by convicted drug dealers or when illegal drugs are found on a property.
Thompson's grandfather had died some years earlier, leaving a will which named Thompson as the beneficiary of the property.
After the Director of Public Prosecutions filed an application in 2001 for the seizure of the property, Thompson filed a motion in the Constitutional Court seeking an order to bar the DPP from taking steps to deprive him of the property. The court did not grant the order sought.
Justice Basil Reid heard the application for the forfeiture and granted the order sought. Thompson, who is being represented by attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, is appealing the ruling. The judge has granted a stay of execution of his order until December 31 when it is expected that the appeal will be heard.
