LUCEA, Hanover — The Lucea courthouse is currently being repaired to the tune of $500,000 following damage caused two years ago by an angry mob of pyramid scheme ‘depositors’.

The depositors stormed the premises, smashing windows and demanding a refund of money they had invested in a get-rich-quick scheme that crumbled.

Two years later, taxpayers have been left holding the repair bill for this act of “vandalism,” noted Justice Minister and Attorney General A J Nicholson, while urging persons with information to assist the police in identifying those who had engaged in damaging the facility.

He said window-panes destroyed by the rioters, and reinforced window frames are currently being installed, while further improvements were slated for the next financial year.

“That will include repairs to the concrete roof and repainting of the courthouse and the cost for that is projected to be over half a million dollars,” he remarked.

In making the announcement at the reopening of the Ramble courthouse recently, the minister was critical of those persons who had fallen victim to the pyramid schemes that mushroomed across western parishes two years ago.

“It burns my heart every time I pass the Lucea Court, it burns my heart,” the minister stated. “Pretty, pretty court it was, and some people came into the parish from between (Hanover), Westmoreland and St James and say they were selling partner. If the people who bought that partner, if they were from Black River in Clarendon like me, they could not be fooled,” Nicholson contended.

Encouraging residents to help maintain the new structure once it is completed, Nicholson said efforts are now underway to bring the island’s courthouses up to “a more dignified level of acceptance” and to make them more user-friendly.

The Ramble courthouse, which was damaged by Hurricane Gilbert about 15 years ago, was officially reopened after a $6.5 million repair and refurbishing project implemented under Lift Up Jamaica and the justice ministry.

Meanwhile, Nicholson said a $200,000 upgrading project was also underway at the Savanna-La-Mar Resident Magistrate’s Court, while the Montego Bay RM Court recently benefited from a $2.2 million repair job and an additional $1.6 million is to be spent there in the next financial year.

In addition, he said $750,000 has been allocated to undertake improvements to the Black River RM court.

“On my watch, a singular effort has to be made to make the courthouses in Jamaica look better. I call them Temples of Justice, because that is what they are supposed to be,” the minister said.

“The parish courts were built in the 17th and 18th centuries, over 100 years ago, some almost 200 years old. On my watch, wherever the money is to come from, the courts have to look a little better or much better than they look at this time,” he added.