A former employee of a lawyer accused of stealing thousands of dollars from his clients claimed that he had not been paid for three months before leaving the firm.

Bruce Swan told a Supreme Court jury that he worked at DV Bermuda, run by Tyrone Quinn, for ten months in 2019 before handing in his resignation.

He said that the firm paid him every month, but the cheques stopped coming in around August.

Mr Swan said his former boss attributed the lack of payment to clients not settling their bills and promised that the employee would get paid before he left at the beginning of November.

Mr Swan told the court: “To this day, I have not seen the money I’ve been owed.”

Mr 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.

Mr Swan is not claiming to be a victim in this case, and told the court that the matter of the missing cash was being settled elsewhere.

Mr Swan, who now runs his own practice, Bruce Swan & Associates, said that he joined DV Bermuda in January 2019 with the understanding that he would be the director of litigation.

He told the court: “I later found out that Tyrone Quinn was the sole director of the firm.

“When I started in 2019, I was under the impression that I would be made the second director.

Mr Swan added that he soon discovered Mr Quinn was the only person with access to the firm’s bank account.

He said he had occasionally been granted access to the account, with Clarien Bank, while Mr Quinn was away, but did not know any specifics about the account.

One aspect he was unclear about was the presence of client trust accounts that were separate from the firm’s account.

Mr Swan said that he met Larry Brangman in March 2019 when Mr Brangman hired them for representation in an injury compensation suit.

He explained that he met Mr Brangman at his house and took down much of his information and the details of his accident.

Mr Swan admitted that he did not complete his notes because it was only a preliminary meeting.

He added that he was not sure whether Mr Quinn had taken Mr Brangman on as a client.

Mr Swan told the court that he was later approached by the police and asked if Mr Quinn had made any lavish purchases or taken any trips.

He told police that Mr Quinn had taken trips to the United States and Dubai, and bought luxury items, such as watches and tickets to sports games.

During cross-examination, Mr Quinn, representing himself, pointed out that these purchases had been made before the alleged thefts occurred and before Mr Swan was his employee, instead only knowing him as a colleague.

The trial continues.

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