NURSE Ruby Kelly’s representative sounded tired as he discussed the matter of the money she deposited on a 1/4-acre lot of land almost 10 years ago in 1994.

“It’s done with…settled…” he said with an air of resignation. That’s because it’s not really settled.

Kelly, who lives in Edmonton, London still hasn’t gotten back the $150,000 she paid in two instalments to a law firm for the land which is located in Hatfield, a quiet community in the tranquil parish of Manchester, a popular settling spot for returning residents who are attracted by its lush, rolling, green landscape.

There’s talk again of her being repaid, but after years of hearing similar promises and making futile efforts to get the money back, the fight has gone out of them. Kelly’s back in England and her Jamaican representative says he can’t take any more of the wear and tear involved in trying to get justice.

“Too much wear and tear and struggle, she just cut the loss and leave it.”

Pauline Allen, who lives in Clapton, London, is afraid to tell her elderly mother why it’s taking so long for her to get a refund of the $711,500 she deposited on a property in Manchester’s Balveney Heights, Jamaica on September 8, 2000.

“I am very concerned about the way things are being conducted…I am very worried about the refund of my mother’s deposit, bearing in mind she is an old lady… I cannot even tell her the full extent of what is going on for fear of her becoming ill,” she said in reference to the same law firm.

That was almost two years ago. To date, nothing.

“It just takes too long, you have to wonder what the sense is when you have to wait years before you get your money back,” said businessman Bentley Rose, who waited for eight years before he got back a fraction of the millions he tried to recover from what was then known as Workers Bank.

And that was only because Winston McKenzie, a former manager at Workers who, along with Melanie Tapper, a former manager of the Trafalgar Commercial Bank, who were last week convicted for defrauding him, decided to make restitution.

Had McKenzie followed the lead of Tapper, who is maintaining her innocence and pursuing an appeal, Rose wouldn’t be getting anything back in the short term.

Tapper and McKenzie have been on trial since 1999 for defrauding Rose and his two companies — Benros and Macro Finance Limited of $7 million. The case against them was complex — McKenzie, a former friend of Rose and Tapper, were accused of conspiring to defraud Rose by going behind his back and using false pretences to suck money out of his bank accounts.

But despite the outcome of the case, Rose doesn’t consider himself a recipient of justice.

“Eight years…everything mash up … the bank is now doing the business that I used to do through Macro Finance, that is, make small loans to soldiers and policemen. Benros not doing anything,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“It’s this type of thing that influences crime, because although I am not the type of person and would never do it, I could have made that money back years ago if I had considered some of the illegal proposals that have been made to me since the case,” he said bitterly.

It’s not just about the money — although it helps if the ultimate award is big enough — as some of the tolls that delays take are non-refundable.

“My mother’s health is not very good and this matter is taking its toll.”

The speaker, Lorraine Walcott of Sydenham London, was referring to an acre of land which her father tried to purchase in Manchester’s Chudleigh community in 1996, through the same law firm that Kelly and Allen complained about.

Walcott paid $600,000 to cover the cost of the land, its transfer and other legal costs. Three years later when he died, the deal still hadn’t been tied up. His daughter is still struggling to get a title.

“Surely after three years we should have received a refund for that money, plus interest,” she complained in 2000.

According to one of the Sunday Observer’s usually reliable sources, there are many more like Kelly, Allen and Walcott.

“These people are being terrorised by a form of injustice that is very hard to fight –delays,” said the source.

Last week, solicitor-general, Michael Hylton, asked Supreme Court judge Roy Anderson to rein in attorney Abe Dabdoub’s cross-examination of a witness with a view to ensuring that the Government’s case against Dr Paul Chen Young to recover over a billion dollars didn’t drag on longer than necessary.

The judge didn’t comply with the unusual request, but he made it clear that he wasn’t going to sit by and allow the lawyers to take as long as they wanted.

In and of itself, the incident probably won’t erase the delays that have ruined the lives of people like Rose, but Hylton thinks it’s a step in the right direction in that it will at least force the issue of time into sharper focus.

“He’s right, you know, said a lawyer who didn’t want to be identified. “This issue needs to be tackled from every angle and the time-wasters in the legal system need to be exposed in every possible way, because very often the delays are fuelled by corruption.”