A car dealer accused of selling the cars of a number of persons without turning over the money was granted additional time to repay the complainants.

Dennis Hall, who is currently before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on seven counts of fraudulent conversion, said he was working on a loan that would allow him to repay the complainants, who attended court in two weeks.

Hall is alleged to have collected varying sums from persons who wanted to purchase motor vehicles from his car mart. However the vehicles have not been given to the customers and the money paid was not returned.

Money not turned over

When he appeared in court on Wednesday, the court heard through his attorney Lloyd Sheckleford that he has been paying back some of the complainants.

However, Senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown said if Hall was making restitution to the complainants he should pay all the money in the courtroom and not outside.

Sheckleford told the court that he had repaid $250,000 of $480,000 he owed to one complainant and only needed time to secure a loan so he could pay off the complainants who had gone to court.

Complainants' stories

One by one, the complainants told of how they had given Hall their vehicle or money for a vehicle and received neither. One complainant even told the court that the accused had tried to license his vehicle using fraudulent documents. He said he still had the car title and made a report to the police when he found out, but he is yet to locate the vehicle.

Linton Walters, an attorney who was also present when the matter was mentioned, said he too had an interest in the matter, as his business partner had sought Hall's services and had neither vehicle nor money for his troubles.

In addition, he said the problems with Hall had been occurring for several years. "This is a continuous thing with Mr Hall. I believe there are persons here who prosecuted Hall as a clerk of court and they are now senior councils in private practice," he said.

Although Hall said he would get the money in two weeks, he was given a mention date for a month later. The matter was set for October 28 and Hall's bail was extended.