Felicitas rejects report that almost half of stolen sand naturally replenished

BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Co-ordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, July 07, 2011

FELICITAS managing director Fredrik Moe has rejected a National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) report that close to half the sand stolen from the company's Coral Springs property in Trewlany around mid-2008 had been naturally replenished two months later.

Felicitas is suing two hotel operators and Bedrock Building Aggregates Ltd to recover US$8 million in damages for sand that it said was illegally mined from its Coral Springs beachfront property between May and July 2008.

The claimant is contending that the development of its 64-acre property had to be postponed due to the theft of the approximately 250 truckloads of sand.

Yesterday, attorney RNA Henriques, during cross-examination, put to Moe the NEPA report November 2008 which states that by September of that year 40 per cent of the sand on the beach had been naturally replenished.

"Do you agree with the report?" asked Henriques, who represents defendant Fiesta Jamaica Limited, operators of Grand Palladium Hotels and Resorts in Lucea, Hanover.

"No, I don't agree with that," said Moe, who later said that the sand had not replenished up to this day.

Fiesta is trying to show that Felicitas could have continued with the development of its property if it was so- minded, and that the sand would have been totally replenished by the scheduled completion date of the project in 2010.

The other defendant in the lawsuit is Riu Jamaicotel Limited, owner/operator of Riu Tropical Bay Hotel and the Club Riu Montego Bay.

Felicitas had purchased the Coral Springs property in August 2006 for US$2.4 million to develop a 40-villa resort.

At the time the sand was stolen, Fiesta and Riu were in the process of developing and constructing beaches on their respective properties.

Felicitas is alleging that Bedrock and/or other persons removed the sand from the Coral Springs property and that they acted as Fiesta's and Riu's agents. The developer is also alleging that the stolen sand was used in the development and construction of the beaches at Fiesta's and Riu's hotels and that both knew or ought to have known that the sand had been illegally obtained.

But the defendants are denying liability. Fiesta admits that it contracted Bedrock in April 2008 to acquire a substantial amount of marine sand and that Bedrock delivered a portion which it thought was legally obtained.

Riu has denied obtaining any sand from any external source and is contending that all the sand used in constructing its beach came from the excavations done when the hotel buildings on its property were being constructed. Additionally, it says that its beach was constructed in 2007, before the sand theft.

Bedrock denies taking any sand from Coral Springs or that it delivered any sand to Riu.