A Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) secretary was given a $252,000 BHC mortgage for a property more than two years after building was scheduled to begin and seven months after it was completed and approved to be lived in, according to official papers.

Leila Outerbridge, the secretary to BHC general manager Raymonde Dill, was reported last week as saying she did not have a loan or mortgage with the housing corporation before November or December last year.

But mortgage papers show Ms Outerbridge and Lionel Cleveland Godfrey were given a $252,000 BHC mortgage for the property in Cut Road, St. George's, on September 28 last year.

And a series of BHC loans are listed in Ms Outerbridge's name amounting to more than $220,000 up to October last year, according to BHC documents published last Friday in the Mid-Ocean News.

Meanwhile, The Royal Gazette has learned that Ms Outerbridge was convicted in 1990 for stealing $22,500 from Warwick Academy, where she was a secretary, and sentenced to nine months imprisonment in the Co-Ed facility.

She appealed that sentence, but the Appeals Court more than doubled it in March 1991 when it ruled the original prison term was “insufficient”.

The Royal Gazette revealed last week that Paul Young, the painter who was paid $810,940 by BHC during a seven month period last year, had convictions in the United States in the 1980's for theft and possession of cocaine.

It is not known what checks BHC, as a publicly-funded body, has to carry out on the backgrounds of potential employees.

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, an employer would not be able to check on an applicant's conviction in Bermuda, seven years after sentence was completed. It is understood Ms Outerbridge joined the corporation in the mid-1990's.

The Royal Gazette asked head of the civil service Stanley Oliver yesterday if publicly-funded bodies such as BHC have to check if potential employees have a criminal record.

Mr. Oliver said BHC was not part of the civil service and referred questions to the corporation. General manager Mr. Dill has continually refused to refuse to comment on the controversy and did not return a telephone call from The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Auditor General Larry Dennis launched a full investigation into the Corporation at the request of Premier Jennifer Smith last week following allegations in the House of Assembly of corruption and kickbacks at BHC.

He promised he will pass files to the Attorney General's Chambers if any evidence of wrongdoing is uncovered.

Planning papers inspected by The Royal Gazette show the Development Applications Board issued approval to Ms Outerbridge on May 20 1998 to begin work building a lower level apartment - which the $252,000 mortgage issued in September 2001 covers.

And the property was given a certificate of occupancy and use permit on February 9 last year - seven months before the mortgage was approved.

Last week loan documents leaked to The Mid-Ocean News revealed that a loan in Ms Outerbridge's name stood at just over $23,000 at the beginning of last year. Six items were added between 28 September and 27 November, taking the total loan to to $235,279.11.

But on November 23 an item listed as “cash payment” of $252,000 is recorded and the loan and the balance at December 6 last year stood at $11,662.05.

Ms Outerbridge denied to a Mid Ocean News reporter that she even had a loan or mortgage with BHC before November of last year, saying: “I took out the mortgage for $252,000, I think, in December or November last year.”

Ms Outerbridge refused to discuss the report with The Royal Gazette on Sunday.

When asked if she had informed BHC about her conviction, she said: “I have no statement to make.”

When the newspaper asked her to confirm that it was she who was convicted of the theft at Warwick Academy, she said: “I have no statement to make.”

Ms Outerbridge's 1990 conviction related to the theft of $22,500 from Warwick Academy between June 1986 and March 31, 1987.

During the trial, over the theft of $22,500 between June 1986 and March 1987, the court heard Ms Outerbridge resigned suddenly, just days before the school was to be audited.

In addition to bank drafts and deposit books from the school, when Police searched her home, they found a book entitled “Zero to $8,000 in Two Days” and an invoice for another - “America's Fastest Way to Be a Millionaire”.

She was imprisoned on October 20, 1990 for nine months but the Appeals Court upped Ms Outerbridge's sentence to two years, saying the theft was “a serious breach of trust committed by an individual who acted in gross dereliction of her duty”, according to The Royal Gazette reports of the appeal at the time.

The Appeals Court said: “There is no indication of any alcohol, drug or other dependency on the part of the respondent. It thus appears to be a case of simple greed.

“Furthermore (Ms Outerbridge) has remained steadfastly unrepentant showing not the slightest trace of remorse.

“The offence was a breach of trust, carried out in a deliberate and methodical manner with further action taken (i.e. double or false entries, removal of documents, premature and sudden resignation) to evade detection of the offence.”

The Court also said: “This was a deliberate and well-orchestrated theft which was systematically carried out over a period of some nine months.

“The conclusion is inescapable that this is a case of a serious breach of trust committed by an individual who acted in gross dereliction of her duties.

“In the present case the funds stolen were public monies received for the purpose of running and maintaining a public school.”