Two leading businessmen have been arrested by detectives investigating the alleged theft of $145,000 from a development company.

Arthur Jones, the owner and director of the Island?s biggest realtor, Coldwell Banker JW Bermuda Realty, and Fraser Butterworth, the president and secretary of the Institute of Bermuda Architects, were arrested at their offices yesterday morning.

They were taken to Hamilton Police Station by fraud officers from the Commercial Crime Department and released on Police bail to appear next month in Magistrates? Court.

Jones, 52, and Butterworth, 62, are directors of Harbour Gardens Limited, which was set up in 1995 to convert the pool wing of the former Palm Reef Hotel into nine townhouses worth between $570,000 and $660,000 each.

A Police statement issued yesterday said: ?Bermuda Police Service has arrested two men in connection with the theft of $145,000 from Harbour Gardens Ltd.

?The 52-year-old Pembroke man and the 62-year-old Southampton man were bailed to appear in court in early June.?

In December, 2001 revealed that detectives were investigating the theft of more than $100,000 from Harbour Gardens Limited.

Later that month reported that the shareholding structure of the company had been changed with shareholders saying they had not been informed by the directors.

The company?s lawyers Wakefield Quin then said the change filed at the Registrar of Companies was an ?administration error?.

The company?s shareholding structure had not been changed, said Wakefield Quin, except that in 1997 non-voting shares were issued to purchasers of the townhouses, which the law firm said was in compliance with the by-laws of the company.

Last June, disclosed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda was investigating a complaint from shareholders about the way the company?s accounts were audited.

The complaint was filed by shareholder Anne Spurling in July 2002, but as of yesterday it had still not been completed.

Mrs. Spurling said the audit carried out by Craig Christensen of Arthur Morris Christensen did not present an accurate picture of the state of the company.

Mr. Christensen told this newspaper in June last year he was ?satisfied we have done everything appropriate?.

Yesterday Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda executive director Alan Bissell told : ?It (the complaint) is ongoing and is almost complete.?

When asked why it has taken almost two years to finish the investigation, Mr. Bissell said: ?It has to go through various hands and the people who have to deal with it are not always on the Island at the same time.?