The trial of a lawyer charged with the theft of almost half a million dollars has started in Supreme Court.

Tyrone Quinn, 37, faces three counts of theft totalling $483,000 after he failed to hand over compensation payments awarded to three of his clients. The offences are alleged to have taken place between May 2020 and February 2021.

Outlining the case for the prosecution, Alan Richards said that Mr Quinn had deliberately failed to hand over the funds to his clients after they had been deposited in the bank account of his law firm, DV Bermuda.

Mr Richards told the jury: “It is the prosecution’s case that Mr Quinn stole the money. He dissipated those funds that he had received into his firm’s account by spending it. He assumed rights of ownership dishonestly.

The first Crown witness, Jacqueline Trott, testified that she had been injured in May 2020 while working as a security guard. She hired Mr Quinn after deciding to seek compensation for her injuries, which required several operations overseas.

Ms Trott said that, in December 2020, Mr Quinn advised her to accept an award of $100,000. She agreed and signed a waiver to any future claim for compensation.

She said: “Mr Quinn said I would get my money 30 days after I signed this paper.”

She claimed that she called Mr Quinn a month later after the funds had failed to materialise and he told her to “be patient”.

Finally, towards the end of February 2021, Mr Quinn told her that the money had been transferred into his account after she complained that she was in arrears in her rent payments.

The pair agreed to meet at a bank, where, according to Ms Trott, Mr Quinn handed her an envelope containing $13,000, telling her that the outstanding balance of $87,000 had been transferred into her account.

She said: “I waited for two days and then called Mr Quinn, who said that he would call the bank.”

According to Ms Trott, the accused did not call her back and failed to take later calls from her.

Under cross-examination by Mr Quinn, Ms Trott, who suffers from diabetes, confirmed that he did buy her medication worth $150 to treat her condition on one occasion.

She also agreed that up until the time of the dispute, he had always been available, and that she was not aware of him being in a gang or knowing any gang members

Larry Brangman, another alleged victim, told the court that he hired Mr Quinn in March 2019 after he was involved in an accident that resulted in him suffering a dislocated hip and cuts to his feet.

He said that his son, a good friend of Mr Quinn since childhood, recommended the lawyer after he decided to seek compensation for his injuries.

Mr Brangman added: “Sometime during the pandemic I told him ‘you need to get paid for your work’, and he just kept saying ‘don’t worry about that, we’ll deal with it later’.”

Mr Brangman said that in April 2020 he settled for $300,000 and signed a release form, but became suspicious when he did not receive the cash.

He told the court that he contacted Colonial Insurance in March 2021 and that the company informed him that the cash had been sent almost a year ago.

Mr Brangman added: “Suddenly nobody had seen him. I put the word out to my son and his friends but they didn’t see him.

“I tried to call him but I kept either getting his voicemail or a message saying this number couldn’t talk to me right now.”

Mr Brangman said that he eventually went to the police to report Mr Quinn.

He added that he still had not received his $300,000.

Jenna Riley, the third alleged victim, said that she hired Mr Quinn in February 2020 to help her sue for compensation after she shattered her ankle in a traffic accident that required multiple surgeries.

She told the court that she eventually settled for $89,000 and was told she would see the cash “within a matter of weeks”.

But she said: “Weeks had gone by, then months had gone by and I’d heard nothing.”

Ms Riley contacted the Freisenbruch-Meyer Group about her payment but was told that her cash had been sent to Mr Quinn in November 2020.

When she contacted his firm, she was informed that he had closed his practice and that her information had been sent to another firm.

Ms Riley said that, after spending months trying to get her money back, she eventually contacted the police.

She said that the cash would have gone towards paying her medical bills and further surgeries, which had to be put on hold because she could not afford them.

Ms Riley added that, to this day, she has still not received her money.

The trial continues.

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