Ex-soca boss on fraud charge

FORMER chairman of Caribbean Prestige Foundation (CPF) Peter Scoon has been charged with defrauding the organisation’s founder William Munro of $.4 million.

Scoon, 53, of Falcon Street, Edinburgh 500, who is also the owner of Media 21 Ltd, appeared in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday accused of fraudulently converting the money for his own use.

He was granted $120,000 bail and ordered to return to court on April 18. It is alleged he failed to provide 500 chairs and to buy, import, and instal a 20 by 25 foot stage, paid for by Munro, for Soca Monarch 2016. Scoon appeared before magistrate Marisa Gomez but was not called upon to plead as the charge was laid indictably. According to the charge, the offence took place between October 12, 2015, and March 20, 2019. Munro reported the incident to the Fraud Squad in March 2017. Scoon’s attorney Donielle Jones asked for bail for her client, saying he had a clean criminal record and surrendered to police on Tuesday. However, police prosecutor Insp Rajesh Lall objected to bail on the basis that Scoon had been on the run for the past year, despite having surrendered to police this week. He said Scoon did not have a fixed residence and could possibly flee the country should bail be granted.

However, Jones said her client lived at Falcon Street and the court could order him to surrender his passport if there were concerns that he was a flight risk. As conditions of his bail, Scoon has to surrender his passport to the clerk of the peace at the court, report to the Fraud Squad every Monday and Wednesday, continue living at Falcon Street, Edinburgh 500 and report any change of address to the Fraud Squad.

The CPF is the organisation that hosts the International Soca Monarch competition. In January, soca artiste Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez was appointed the new chairman of CPF.