From community leaders to prison inmates

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Kyril Burrows and Delcina Bean-Burrows went from well-respected careers in business and public service to the back of two prison vans yesterday.

The couple, who have two school-age children, were remanded into custody after being convicted of looting the public purse (see main story.)

Not only did they commit a fraud together against Government, but they stood shoulder to shoulder throughout their 12-week trial, defending themselves against the allegations.

During her closing speech last week, prosecutor Susan Mulligan told the jury: “As you have seen in this court, the two of them worked closely together.”

According to their Gombey Republic art website: “They became an item in 1979 and the pair have never left each other’s side even in the midst of recent events.”

However, they spent last night apart, after Bean-Burrows was taken to the Co-Ed prison and her husband to Westgate. Here, The Royal Gazette takes a closer look at the couple who hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Kyril Burrows

Burrows, a 48-year-old architect, was educated at the Berkeley Institute from 1975 onwards. He met his wife there and they married in 1990.

Among the witnesses for the prosecution at their trial were their former teachers Sonia Grant, now a lawyer, and Robert Horton, now a Permanent Secretary.

Burrows went on to attend North Carolina A&T State University from 1981 and Howard University from 1986 where he earned a degree in Architecture.

He landed a job as a graduate architect at the Department of Works and Engineering, having received a Government bursary for three years while studying at Howard.

In 1994, before he finished training, he won an award from the Bermuda Commercial Bank and Bermudian Magazine for designing one of the best buildings of the year; the new cruise ship terminal on Ordnance Island, St George’s.

Burrows went on to be appointed project architect for the new Berkeley Institute senior secondary school.

In July 2003, he was promoted to the role of buildings manager within Works and Engineering; the role he abused to submit fraudulent payment certificates and divert public money into his own pockets.

According to the charges he was convicted of yesterday, he and his wife commenced the fraud against Government in January 2005. In that month, they used an invoice for her company Theravisions to misappropriate $2,995 of public cash. The fraud continued right up until December 2009, when Mr Burrows was still said to be laundering stolen public funds.

In 2008, while actively engaged in the fraud, Mr Burrows graduated from the prestigious Leadership by Design course, designed to prepare civil servants for Permanent Secretary and Director positions within Government.

Delcina Bean-Burrows

Bean-Burrows, 49, was a prominent figure in the community even before her crime hit the headlines.

She studied at Howard University after leaving the Berkeley Institute, qualifying with a degree in Occupational Therapy.

She then attended Kent State University in Ohio where she obtained a Master of Education degree.

According to her Gombey Republic blog she is “an occupational therapist and health enthusiast, and she is well known in the community for the many public health and safety initiatives she has spearheaded”.

Bean-Burrows used her training in occupational therapy to work with children with special needs at the Department of Education. She went on to become Bermuda’s Road Traffic Safety Officer in 1997, working for the Transport Control Department.

Bean-Burrows also headed several companies including Health Tech Renaissance, an occupational health company offering first aid kit supplies and training, and Triangle Toner, which sold Bermuda-themed products in St George’s.

In 2004, she unveiled a new line of skincare products, also branded Triangle Toner, designed to offer sun protection year-round for people living in Bermuda.

Bean-Burrows also headed Theravisions, which supplied medical equipment and Ren Tech, which, the trial heard, only existed on paper. The jury learned how she filed false invoices from Theravisions and Ren Tech to obtain money from Government that was never owed to her.

Yet in contrast to her actions in plundering the taxpayers’ purse, Bean-Burrows has a history of public service.

She is a former executive director of the Women’s Resource Centre and St John Ambulance Brigade. She also produced and hosted TV programmes about road safety and health and safety in the workplace, and she founded the Arthritis Foundation.

In the year 2000, Bean-Burrows launched an art and literature programme to address illiteracy on the Island. In 2001, she spearheaded a grassroots initiative, the Women’s Policy Committee, which aimed to identify solutions to problems faced by the Island’s women.

In 2006, she made an unsuccessful bid to be elected as a Common Councillor for the Corporation of St George’s.

According to her Facebook page, she is online ‘friends’ with another shamed businesswoman, Antoinette Bolden. The pair studied at the Berkeley Institute at the same time, graduating together in 1980. Bolden and her husband were convicted by a jury in June 2011 of misleading the Bermuda Monetary Authority. They were cleared of theft and money laundering allegations in relation to their Emerald Financial Group of companies.

In a post marking Bean-Burrows’s birthday in February 2012, Antoinette Bolden wrote: “Love you and may God’s blessing pour over you.”

Bean-Burrows used Facebook during her trial to urge her friends to pray for herself and her husband.

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