KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODDP) is calling for the Larceny Act to be reviewed in light of concerns raised recently in the public domain on the matter involving Carlos Hill and Cash Plus Limited.

The ODDP, in a 30-page report, attributed the collapse of the case to an unfortunate “cultural apathy” driven often by fear because of Jamaican socio-cultural realities, making many witnesses to crime, and victims of crime, unwilling to give statements to the police.“It also cannot be ignored that investors in this particular case reported, as reasons for their unwillingness to assist the police in their investigations by giving a statement, embarrassment at having been possibly misled and reluctance to disclose the amount of money invested. Some persons also reported that their main objective was the return of their money, and they felt that Carlos Hill going to prison was inimical to that purpose,” the ODDP contended.The office said it is useful to now consider the value of evidence in criminal prosecutions. “In short, there are no criminal prosecutions without evidence. Evidence is the foundation of every prosecution, and therefore conviction, in law.”The office called for the Larceny Act to overhauled saying that “citizens of this country took their money and signed to an agreement lending their money in an explicitly high-risk arrangement to a company, led by a principal who was for the most part a stranger to most investors.”The report stated that investors had been getting, for a time, the promised interest; when the arrangement was disrupted, public pronouncements were made blaming the banks for the disruption.It explained that the laws in Jamaica, pertaining to any type of fraud, generally require proof of an intention to defraud, adding that “it is generally acknowledged by legal commentators that the prosecution would have had a challenge meeting the burden of proof for intention to defraud (not least because investors were, at least at the beginning, receiving payments, and that Mr Carlos Hill, Cash Plus and its affiliates owned or had an interest in a wide range of companies that appeared on the surface to be succesful).”There is no offence in Jamaica known as “Operating a Ponzi scheme”, the ODDP explained.“We note public commentary to the contrary, but given the evidentiary material and which existed, and the circumstances we were constrained to proceed to offer no evidence in the manner outlined. The Office of the DPP, as the designated authority comprising trained lawyers collectively with years of specialised training and experience in prosecuting, at every level as well as appearing in the Court of Appeal, to make submissions in law to uphold convictions in all types of cases.It said the initial charge of obtaining money by false pretences, laid by the police, was not sustainable, given the evidence on the prosecution’s file that Hill was repaying a loan made to him at an agreed rate of interest signed to by the investor, a loan acknowledged to be high in risk.“Contrary to public opinion, the Office of the DPP made a careful assessment and concluded based on the laws which exist, that no other charge was viable. Having proceeded in this manner, we would require particular evidence from witnesses who did not, in the final analysis, co-operate,” the report ended.