Former clerical officer Anderson Ryan Ince will spend ten years in prison for stealing over one million dollars from the taxpayers of Barbados.
The 43-year-old Hannays, St Lucy resident has also lost all the property – two cars, furniture and jewelry – that the Crown alleged he purchased with the money in light of a restitution order granted by Madam Justice Michelle Weekes for the items, which were seized by police.
Describing the crime as a serious breach of the public’s trust, the High Court judge handed down the sentence to Ince, who was found guilty by a jury last October of theft and money laundering of $1,118, 500 belonging to the Psychiatric Hospital.
The thefts were committed over a period of two years, between August 1, 2003 and August 1, 2005.
“It is clear that you planned and executed an elaborate scheme to dishonestly take money from the Crown. The ‘victim’ here being the Government of Barbados through the Psychiatric Hospital was defrauded of a substantial sum . . . none of which was paid back. In effect you stole from the taxpayers of Barbados,” the judge said to Ince, who has lost considerable weight since being remanded to HMP Dodds last year.
Weekes also informed Ince that he had breached the trust of his fellow employees and employers at the Black Rock, St Michael hospital as he used the passwords of his superiors to facilitate his dishonest actions.
“This amounted to a serious betrayal of trust and there was evidence highlighting their feelings of betrayal and shock at your actions,” she said, adding that Ince had shown no remorse and remained adamant of his innocence despite the verdict.
Taking all the mitigating and aggravating factors of the crime into consideration, Weekes imposed ten-year sentences on each count, which would run concurrently.
However, the first-time offender only has nine years, 111 days remaining to serve at Dodds, having spent 254 days on remand.
Today, Ince was stoic as the ruling was being read out.
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