A well-known civil attorney and a medical doctor who were accused of forging a dead man’s will were today freed of fraud charges in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.
The 67-year-old attorney-at-law Peter Millingen of Braywrick Road in Kingston, and 58-year-old medical doctor Dane Levy of White Wing Avenue, Portmore in St Catherine, were arrested last November and charged with conspiracy to defraud, uttering forged document, and demanding property by means of forged document, while Levy is to face charges of conspiracy to defraud and forgery.
The duo were freed after the Crown entered a nolle prosequi, to discontinue the matter.
Prrosecutor Donnette Henriques told Magistrate Maxine Ellis that Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn had reviewed the case file and came to the conclusion that the matter had been inadequately investigated and that she felt that it was in the best interest of justice to discontinue the case to give the police an opportunity to conduct further investigations to proceed.
Reports from the police’s Corporate Communications Unit (CCU) are that in 2013, the relative of a deceased man requested a copy of the Last Will and Testament document from Millingen – the dead man’s lawyer – and was denied.
The relative then retained the services of another attorney who applied for and obtained a copy of the document. After examining the will, the relative discovered discrepancies with the document to include the deceased’s signature, CCU said in a release.
A report was made to the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Branch (C-TOC) and an investigation was launched.
The purported document was sent to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Questioned Document Examination Department, along with several specimen handwriting. It was revealed that the Last Will and Testament reportedly signed by the deceased was forged, the release said.
The investigation, according to the police, also revealed that Millingen, the preparer of the document, filed an Affidavit of Feeble Handwriting in the Supreme Court of Jamaica, which stated that he was present at the date when the deceased and the two purported witnesses signed the document.
However, forensic evidence revealed that it was Levy who forged the signatures of the witnesses, the police reported.
Attorney Tom Tavares Finson represented Millingen while Levy, was represented by attorneys Bert Samuels and Stacy-Ann Knight.
Tanesha Mundle
A BUY DEM BUY OUT THE CASE
Nope, no buy out. You have to know who brought the case against them fi really get how this go….plus….mi nuh know the lawyer, but I know the doctor and from the story buss we all knew that what was reported is not what happened. Plus even if he did, he didn’t stand to benefit from the will at all, so it was crazy to think he would jeopardize his license. Anyway…no surprise it was thrown out. Button more than a family member see say he wasn’t gonna gain from the will and spun a story, doc was never guilty though.