The owner of the Phoenix Stores and the BGA Group was yesterday charged with not paying more than $670,000 in taxes allegedly owed by his separate betting business.

Wendall Brown's Triple Crown Racing was one of five local companies which appeared in Magistrates' Court yesterday on charges of not paying more than $1.4 million in taxes to the Government.

Triple Crown Racing, Bermuda Accounting & Management Services, Darrell Contracting Services, and Cedarberry Ltd. all pleaded not guilty and had trial dates set as they appeared before Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves. Raymond Emery, owner of Emery's Paint Shop, entered a guilty plea and was bailed, to satisfactory payment.

Crown counsel Graveney Bannister told court that the trial dates should be set so that the matters could be resolved quickly.

Triple Crown Racing Limited appeared after having allegedly not paid $670,195.29 in taxes. The 28 counts were connected to the company and fall under the primary charges of failure to pay taxes, failure to file a return, failure to pay a penalty imposed.

All the offences occurred between December 2000 and the present.

Wendall Brown, principal collector for Triple Crown, appeared before Mr. Greaves. Lawyer Paul King assisted Brown, who denied the charges.

Mr. Greaves ordered that Brown be bailed for $5,000 to appear in court on October 7.

Proceedings were delayed briefly when the defendant was called and the information was not before Mr. Greaves. Mr. Bannister was ordered by Mr. Greaves to retrieve the file from elsewhere in Magistrates' Court.

Cedarberry Limited was charged with three primary offences after not paying $414,061.46 in taxes. Cedarberry Ltd. president Barry Kessel also denied the tax evasion charges. Cedarberry, which owns the Fortune Corner betting shop in Hamilton, faced 137 counts under the primary charges of failing to pay taxes, failure to furnish returns and evading taxes.

There were also two additional charges of operating as a betting pool without a licence and carrying on business as a bookmaker without a licence. Mr. Greaves bailed Kessel for $5,000 to appear for trial on August 26 in Magistrates' Court.

Meanwhile, Bermuda Accounting & Management Services was charged with not paying $57,509.80 in taxes.

Company president Gavin Simmons was bailed for $5,000 to appear for trial on September 3. Darrell Contracting Limited had 89 counts for allegedly not paying $251,936.86 in taxes. The counts fall under the primary charges of failure to pay taxes, failure to hand over their books, failure to furnish a tax return.

Company owner Harold Darrell did not appear in court, but his lawyer Leopold Mills said he would return from abroad on business shortly.

Darrell was ordered to be freed on bailed of $5,000 with a trial date set for September 3.

And Raymond Emery appeared on behalf of Emery's Paint Shop for allegedly owing $27,820.59 in taxes, covered by 45 counts with the primary charges being failure to pay taxes, failure to file a return and failure to pay penalty imposed.

Emery told the court that he had been in contact with the Tax Commissioner but never followed through with any payments for the shop which has been open for seven years.

Emery said he was in the process of paying Government back what he owed at a rate of $1,000 a month on the taxes he owed.

Mr. Greaves said that paying $1,000 a month was not enough and that he should find a quicker way to pay the money and said he would give Emery some time to get a payment plan worked out.

When asked how much time he would like to that, Emery responded: "About six months."

Mr. Greaves said that six months was too long and bailed Emery for $5,000 to appear in Magistrates Court in two weeks.