‘I’m no thief’

People’s National Party (PNP) Councillor Lambert Weir is pleading ignorance of the law after the Integrity Commission (IC) ruled that he be charged for breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act and the Integrity Commission Act.

The revelation of the charges was made by the IC in a letter addressed to House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert and Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson. The letter was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

IC Executive Director Greg Christie disclosed that his colleague Keisha Prince-Kameka, the commission’s director of corruption prosecution “after careful consideration” ruled that Weir should be charged for breaches of Section 15(2)(b) of the Corruption Prevention Act and Section 43(2)(a) of the Integrity Commission Act “for knowingly making a false statement in a statutory declaration”.

The ruling is as a result of a recommendation made by the IC’s Director of Investigation Kevon Stephenson that Weir be possibly charged after he concluded that the St Ann councillor, who represents the Claremont division, conspired to defraud the Government.

Stephenson also concluded, among other things, that Weir and close friend Lyson Charlton fraudulently obtained a 20 per cent duty concession from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.

That disclosure came in an IC report also tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, following a probe.

But Weir expressed shock at the conclusions and ruling in an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday, noting that he learnt of the report and ruling only after a constituent told him that a senior PNP member had been circulating the information within the constituency.

Weir insisted that he had filed his statutory declarations annually and that he acted within the law.

However, he is alleged to have made false statements in the statutory declarations he filed for the periods ending December 31, 2017, December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2019.

The director of investigation said that Weir failed to include in them a certain asset he held.

That asset is a Toyota Prado motor vehicle, which he obtained in 2017, through a 20 per cent duty concession as a local government councillor. He was the legal owner until 2019, Stephenson said.

Weir said that he did not declare the vehicle during that time because it was co-owned with Charlton. He said that he would use it occasionally to attend meetings and functions.

However, Stephenson, citing the Customs Act, suggested that the vehicle could not be co-owned because it was bought on concession and must be used for its intended purpose within that three-year period.

Stephenson said that his enquiries revealed that Charlton advanced a payment of just over $8 million on Weir’s behalf to Toyota Jamaica in March 2017 to purchase the vehicle.

The ownership of the vehicle was transferred to Charlton in July 2020.

Further, Stephenson said that Weir submitted claims for upkeep and travelling allowance, through the St Ann Municipal Corporation, for two vehicles in his name and noted that the Toyota Prado was not one of them.

Weir told The Gleaner that three years ago, he did not mention the vehicle on his filings because he was not aware that he should have declared it.

He said that he wrote a five-page letter explaining this to Stephenson.

“[But] this thing kept on coming, coming, and I’m surprised to now to hear that there was conspiracy to defraud. That is surprising to me. What conspiracy to defraud? You can sell the vehicle after three years,” he said.

Asked by The Gleaner about the claims made for travelling and upkeep despite selling the vehicle, Weir said that he used other vehicles.

“I never know that something like this would leave to problem. Mi nuh thief nuh money or whatever. It’s strange … . I never know that I had to submit about mi private business and everything,” he said, adding that he was ignorant of the law.

He signalled that he will be challenging the charge whenever he is summoned.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com