Taxpayers will have to foot the bill for more than $200,000 after Government was ordered to pay damages to Bermuda Aviation Services (BAS)<\p>for contravening its exclusive rights to offer private jet services at LF<\p>Wade International Airport, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

In the Supreme Court ruling, Government was told to cough up $202,569.16 after losing its second appeal, having been found in breach of BAS's exclusive rights, which run until 2014, by giving rival operator Sovereign Flight<\p>Support permission to provide a private jet service.

Ken Joaquin, CEO and president of BAS, said that the figure arrived at was for damages only, due to the loss of business from Sovereign serving aircraft that should have landed at BAS's private jet facility.

BAS and its subsidiary Aircraft Services filed a writ against Premier Ewart Brown, in his capacity as Minister of Transport, as well as then-Attorney General Phil Perinchief, in June 2007.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Tourism and Transport last month said the costs and damages awarded for BAS against Government totalled $148,796.20 to date. The Ministry did not respond to a request this week for an updated figure.

But that figure does not include the additional amount incurred while Sovereign was still operating for three months after the decision was made, as revealed by court documents. And more money may still be owed or due to BAS, according to the company's lawyers.

The Sovereign Group, meanwhile, has a line of creditors queuing up to collect money due for unpaid services.

Bermuda Police have confirmed they are investigating matters related to the Sovereign Group, but would not disclose any details about the nature of the inquiry. A police spokesman said of the Sovereign Group: "Inquiries are ongoing and therefore no further comment will be made by the Bermuda Police Service at this time." The Department of Airport Operations, East End Aircraft Services Ltd. and Technics Auto Centre Ltd. were all owed sums by the Sovereign Group, with the court awarding East End Aircraft Services $119,480 and $500 in interest costs after a writ was filed against Sovereign Ground Support Ltd. in June, according to a court listing.

Technics Auto Centre also took legal action against the SovereignGroup in July over outstanding invoices as per public listings, while the Department of Airport Operations is still seeking to resolve the matter.

Aaron Adderley, general manager of the Department of Airport Operations, said the Sovereign Group had outstanding debts to pay and both parties were trying to come to an agreement over the issue.

"Sovereign does have monies outstanding to the Department that it is in the process of settling," he said.

"We are sitting down and working with them to get a plan that is acceptable to both parties.

"They are actively working with us to settle any and all outstanding debts.

"We are in constant communication with them, so I am comfortable and hopeful that things are proceeding ahead."

Government decided not to renew the Sovereign Group's private jet licence when it expired in June, due to a material breach, in a matter separate to the BAScase, as exclusively reported in The Gazette in August.

A Government spokeswoman said the Sovereign Group's licence to operate on Apron 4 was terminated in June and operations ceased in July, but the company was still licensed to operate on Apron 1, including servicing the commercial airlines.

The Royal Gazette visited the Sovereign Group's private jet terminal in Southside yesterday to question Sovereign Flight Support's vice-president Sheldon Steede after he failed to respond to voicemail and e-mail messages.

The terminal was locked and the lights were turned off, but a woman opened the door and agreed to the paper's request to contact Mr. Steede, however after calling him she said he was in meetings at the airport all day and unavailable.

Efforts to reach Mr. Steede at the airport also proved unsuccessful, with a woman at the desk of the Department of Airport Operations saying she know where he was.

Confusion surrounds the ownership and management of Sovereign Flight Support and the Sovereign Group, with the former, which was founded by Westport Trust Co. Ltd. as trustees of the Apphia Trust and registered in April 2006, with Kenny Burns and Mr. Steede listed as shareholders as of December 2006, according to the Registrar of Companies' files.

The pair, who were both working for BAS at the time, were quoted in this paper in July 2006 as saying they wanted to launch their own private passenger terminal inSouthside.

The Sovereign Group was incorporated in May 2005, with Mr. Burns listed as having 5,999 shares, Mr. Steede 5,999 shares, and Bernett Cox and Antoinette Simmons one share each.

The records stated that the Sovereign Group was struck off by the Registrar after failing to submit its annual fees in 2006 due to an "administrative oversight", but was later restored to the list. Mr. Burns, who also failed to reply to a message left yesterday, in August maintained he was still the president and CEO of Sovereign Flight Support and had not heard anything about the company's licence not being renewed, despite a woman who answered a call to the company's switchboard on the same day saying that Mr. Burns was "no longer with Sovereign".

BAS had its exclusivity deal extended six years ago and its case against Government eventually went to arbitration almost a year-and-a-half later, with the court ruling in BAS's favour in December 2008.

But, having lost at arbitration, Government sought leave to appeal the decision in December last year, but the appeal was refused at Supreme Court on January 8 and a subsequent appeal was turned down at the Court of Appeal in March, as exclusively reported in The Gazette.

Under the terms of the arbitration hearing, chaired by a three-man panel of lawyers, the ruling was supposed to remain confidential for the immediate future, but the Attorney General's Chambers revealed back in January that the court had ruled in BAS's favour and that Government had put in an application for leave to appeal the decision.

Despite the ongoing case and BAS contesting that Sovereign had not competed in the tender process for the right to offer the service, Sovereign went ahead and converted a former US Air Force building at Carter House in Southside into a private jet passenger terminal, which officially opened in May 2008.

From the outset of the case, BAS maintained that the Ministry would also be going against the advice of its own technical advisers if it granted Sovereign permission to operate private jet services, with Mr. Joaquin saying BAS had won an exclusive right to offer private jet services through an open tender in 1997 and made its concerns over the breach known to the Transport Ministry.