ST ANDREW, Jamaica — A St Andrew real estate developer was on Thursday found not guilty of fraudulent conversion and obtaining money by false pretense in a case involving the sale of a townhouse in 2008.

It is alleged that Devon Evans had sold the home to Dr Loyd Goldson. However, after Goldson made a deposit on the home and took possession of it, Evans allegedly failed to deliver the  registered title. Goldson had paid over US$400,000 for the property.

It was also alleged that Evans had failed to deliver the proceeds of rental income from another townhouse in which Dr Goldson had an interest.

The matter was reported to the Fraud Squad and Evans was charged.

However, during the trial in the Corporate Area Criminal Court, under cross examination by Evans’s attorney, King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie, a number of inconsistencies arose in the account given by Goldson.

It was suggested to Goldson that he was aware that prior to making a deposit, the townhouse was the subject of a lien by National Commercial Bank and so Evans would not have been in a position to immediately deliver a title to him. It was also brought to light that the rental income from the other townhouse, in which Goldson had an interest, had been paid over to Goldson by Evans.

In finding Evans not guilty of both charges, Chief Parish Judge Chester Crooks noted that Goldson’s evidence under cross examination had left the prosecution’s case in a state of uncertainty.

Throughout the trial Champagnie had consistently suggested that the complaint against his client, if any, belonged in the civil court and not the criminal court.