BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – A magistrate court has committed the former Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) chairman here, Leroy Coleridge Parris, to stand trial for his alleged theft of more than three million dollars (One Barbados dollar=US$0.50 cents) from the insurance company.
Magistrate Manila Renee committed the 77-year-old former executive to stand trial at the High Court after hearing submissions from his attorneys Hal Gollop KC and Neil Marshall.
Parris is accused of stealing BDS$ 3.33 million belonging to CLICO International Life Insurance Limited between December 1, 2008, and April 27, 2009.
He is also charged with conspiring with other persons to defraud CLICO International Life Insurance Limited of the same amount by inducing the insurance company to pay out the money to Thompson and Associates.
The prosecution is alleging that Parris, between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, conspired with others to cheat the Crown and the Commissioner of Inland Revenue of public revenue by failing to submit tax returns to the Commissioner or account to the Commissioner for taxes on his income for the year ending March 31, 2010.
The court heard that between December 1, 2008, and April 27, 2009, Parris engaged in money laundering, concealing BDS$ 3.33 million, the proceeds of the crime. The charges have been laid indictably.
“I maintain my innocence of all charges,” Parris told the court.
He has been on BDS$1.5 million bail since his first appearance before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court in June 2020. He will make his next court appearance before Magistrate Renee on Monday when the committal process is to be finalized.
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