The boss of a now bankrupt furniture shop charged with dodging pension payments is back in court this morning to hear the decision of magistrate Will Francis.

Robert Dwinnell ? a director of Galleria Ltd. which owned Mills Creek furniture outlet Rooms For You ? is charged by the Crown with eight counts of pension fraud.

During the trial ? which ran through the end of last week ? eight former employees testified that although pension deductions had been taken from their weekly cheques, the funds were not paid into the company's pension fund at BF&M.

It was also alleged that from August 2001 through August 2003 that no employer contributions were made, as required under the law.

The head of BF&M pension administration arm told the court that estimates put the arrears owed by Galleria at more than $73,000.

And a management company that had handled financial matters for Rooms For You said general manager Jennifer Dwinnell never told it to make pension payments even though the amounts owing appeared on records as overdue debt.

Although the Crown brought its case against husband and wife business partners Robert and Jennifer Dwinnell ? the daughter of wealthy Bermuda businessman David Lines ? only Robert Dwinnell is standing trial as his wife is understood to be in Canada.

Jennifer Dwinnell has reportedly not answered a summons issued by the court in July, and the Crown is seeking to get a warrant for her.

On Friday, defence lawyer Saul Froomkin said his client had "no case to answer" for several reasons.

Mr. Froomkin said under the law, a director can only be found guilty of an offence if the 'body corporate' ? in this case, Galleria Ltd. ? has first been convicted of the same crime, which had not happened. In addition, he said there was no evidence of the eight employees being enrolled in the pension scheme at BF&M, and said it was not clear whether or not the former staff were eligible with pension laws stating that staff must put in 720 hours of work before they can be enrolled.

Mr. Froomkin also contested the basis on which charges were brought against Dwinnell, saying that no evidence had been given of his being a Galleria Ltd. director during the period that the charges relate to.

This despite Robert Dwinnell being listed as a company director in Government company registration files, as well as Dwinnell being the one to sign a wind-up agreement for Galleria Ltd. last October.

In that Supreme Court petition, Dwinnell signed as a vice-president and director of the company.

Mr. Froomkin added that "assuming he was a director" there was also the question of whether he had the responsibility to ensure that pension payments were made, and that this may have been the remit of Jennifer Dwinnell.

He also sighted the management company that did the company's bookkeeping and bill paying, as having a "contractual responsibility" to handle all payroll matters, including liabilities.

In addition, Mr. Froomkin charged that BF&M had not followed the law when it failed to notify both the employer and the Pension Commission when the account fell behind.

But Crown counsel Anthony Blackman asked Mr. Francis "to look at all of the circumstances" during the trial that made it clear that monies had been taken from employees for the private pension plan, but never paid.

Mr. Blackman shot back at Mr. Froomkin's assertion that a company must be first charged with the offence before a director can be, and that Dwinnell had clearly been acting on behalf of the company.

Mr. Blackman said there was strong oral evidence from a former bookkeeper who took the stand during the trial that Dwinnell had been aware of the company's pension debt, including being part of a discussion on a scheme of payment that was never followed through on.

"We are saying that having been aware of the situation, he (Dwinnell) neglected to fix it and it continued and resulted in non-payment of pensions. We are submitting that this defendant does have a case to answer."