(CMR) Paulette Anglin-Lewis (54) has appeared in Grand Court to answer charges of theft of over $55,000 for allegedly stealing the permanent residency (PR) fees from one of her clients.
Crown counsel Toyin Salako laid out the prosecution's case to the jury on Tuesday allegeding that; Anglin-Lewis who operates Anglin-Lewis & Associates, a local immigration service company, had taken the fees for her client's permanent residency fees for 2013 and 2014. The client received PR in 2008 and she was tasked with ensuring the fees were paid on an annual basis.
In 2013 Rawcliffe paid his annual invoice of $27,750, which included his right to work as a CPA, permanent residency fees, the immigration administrative fee and Anglin-Lewis’ service charge. It is alleged that Anglin-Lewis was facing financial difficulties and used the funds to pay her own bills instead. Anglin-Lewis did not inform her client of her financial situation or that the fees were allocated elsewhere.
The following year Anglin-Lewis invoiced the same client yet again for the annual fees; which he promptly paid. The Crown stated that Anglin-Lewis once again failed to pay the fees because her own business account was overdrawn by $90,000 when Rawcliffe sent his money to her, and on the day his fees were due on 16 May 2014, she was still more than $16,000 overdrawn.
She then contacted immigration on several occasions and requested two extensions to pay the fees but never met those obligations when the time came due. Eventually Rawcliffe was contacted directly by the immigration department about the outstanding fees in late 2014. Upon contacting Anglin-Lewis's office he was told by the bookkeeper that it was an administrative error or oversight. He was unable to rectify the matter with Anglin-Lewis and she was unreachable. Fearful of having his PR revoked he had to borrow the $55,000 to pay the fees again.
Unfortunately after many months of attempting to contact Anglin-Lewis and rectify the matter via his attorneys he had then turned it over to the Financial Crimes Unit of the RCIPS and Anglin was arrested and subsequently charged.
Anglin-Lewis has denied the allegations and stands by her position that it is an administrative error.
However, CMR sources indicate that The Solution Centre building where Anglin-Lewis was located and owns was up for sale. A former immigration employee, Anglin-Lewis has been in business for 12 years and is still operating from the same local.
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