Clayton Stanfield Greene (Appellant) v The King (Respondent) (Turks and Caicos Islands)

Permission to Appeal application lodged

Case summary
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Permission to Appeal
Previous proceedings

Case summary

Case ID

JCPC/2025/0090

Jurisdiction

Turks and Caicos Islands

Parties

Appellant(s)

Clayton Greene

Respondent(s)

The King

Issue

Having found that the Appellant’s constitutional right to a fair trial within a reasonable time had been breached, did the trial judge err in declining to order a permanent stay of the proceedings? Did the Court of Appeal err in finding that the trial judge was correct to dismiss the Appellant’s further applications for the proceedings to be stayed? Did the trial judge misdirect herself on whether actual suspicion is an element of the offence under section 30(2)(a) of the Proceeds of Crime Ordinance? Did the trial judge fail to analyse the defence’s evidence on the Appellant’s subjective state of mind? Did the Court of Appeal err by misapplying the statutory proviso contained in section 7(1) of the Court of Appeal Ordinance?

Facts

Clayton Stanfield Greene (“the Appellant”) was part of a group of defendants who were charged with offences including fraud, conspiracy to accept bribes in public office, conspiracy to defraud, bribery and associated money laundering. The Appellant was an attorney who, in 2005, had practiced law for more than a decade. He received sums of money from his co-defendant, who is also his cousin, Floyd Basil Hall (“FBH”), into the client trust account of Stanfield Greene Attorneys. FBH was a government minister at the time. On 25 September 2023, the Appellant was convicted of concealing or disguising the proceeds of criminal conduct contrary to section 30(2)(a) of the Proceeds of Crime Ordinance 1998 (“POCO”). Between 1 January 2006 and 31 August 2009, the Appellant concealed proceeds of criminal conduct committed by FBH, with a view to avoiding the making or enforcement of a confiscation order or avoiding prosecution for unlawful conduct. This conviction resulted from a lengthy process involving two trials. The first trial commenced on 16 January 2016, but the original trial judge died on 7 February 2021 with the trial incomplete. The prosecution decided to proceed with prosecuting the defendants. On 16 March 2021, the Appellant (along with the other defendants) filed an application to stay the proceedings on the ground of abuse of process. On 7 May 2021, the Hon Chief Justice Mabel Agyemang decided that the delay breached the constitutional right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time. She granted a temporary stay of proceedings and ordered the prosecution to prepare the case for an expedited trial by reducing the complexity of the case. The second trial commenced in July 2021 and concluded on 16 June 2023. The Appellant had filed two further applications to stay the proceedings for abuse of process, both of which were rejected. The Appellant appealed against the conviction to the Court of Appeal of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. The Appellant now seeks leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.