“If everything is in arrears, there's no way that this can work”
Sandy Hill advising Kirk Donald – Feb. 15, 2023
(CMR) Khirk Donald, owner of Royale Medical and Wellness Center, appeared in Summary Court Tuesday morning to plead guilty to numerous charges of failing to pay three employees KYD $99,210. The charges are the latest in a long list of employee complaints against Donald and his ill-fated medical facility.
Magistrate Phillipa McFarlane put the charges to Donald a day after he had his trial postponed in original for him to secure legal counsel. The original trial was postponed from Monday morning when it was discovered that his attorney had quit for non-payment of legal fees. In the dock, Donald accept the Crown's case against him and plead guilty to:
An administrative assistant and coder is owed some KYD $10,900 after Donald failed to pay her for two months between January and February 2023. The collection manager is owed a total of KYD $17,560 for two separate pay periods dating back to February 1, 2022. The final complainant, an OBGYN physician, is owed some KYD $70,750 for a period of six months (March 1-September 30, 2022).
After pleading guilty, Crown Counsel attorney Kenneth Ferguson revealed that this office was informed that Donalad intended to wind up the company and place it into liquidation. He had concerns about the victims in this criminal matter having to join a long list of creditors in the winding-up process.
The court also heard that the same defendant is involved in several civil matters involving a substantial sum of money. After some discussion, it was determined that the court would benefit from victim impact statements, and the defendant was offered the opportunity to have a social inquiry report (SIR) provided to the court.
The matter is set to return to court on May 22.
CMR understands that Donald has struggled with the business since the company was formed in 2020 and has already paid large sums of money to other employees over the company's history. Some of his investors also reached out to CMR and indicated that he had not paid them back loans used to set up the company.
In November 2023, the facility moved from Bay Town Plaza on West Bay Road to Savannah Plaza (Unit 6) off Hirst Road.
Despite these early warning signs, in February 2023, CMR talk show host Sandy Hill pleaded with Donald to consider shutting down his family business. However, he refused to do so but did admit that he did not understand the business side of things. At that time, Donald was being accused of not paying numerous workers.
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