of Appeal yesterday after his conviction for perjury and fraudulently concealing property was quashed.

In 1993, Mr. Peniston was put into receivership. During 1994, Mr. Peniston was examined under oath about his affairs and his assets before Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller.

It was alleged by the Crown that during this examination, Mr. Peniston lied when he: Claimed he paid the proceeds of two pension polices to his former wife; Denied having sold jewellery to Astwood Dickinson; and Said his former wife received the proceeds of the two pension policies.

It was also alleged that he concealed the proceeds of the sale of the jewellery.

Lawyer Richard Hector, who represented Mr. Peniston at the Court of Appeal hearing, based his arguments on the grounds that the trial judge erred in admitting into evidence the unsigned notes of the public examination made by Mrs. Wade-Miller and the deposition of Mr. Peniston's former wife, the late Sylvia Oretta Peniston.

The Bankruptcy Act provides that when a debtor is examined under oath, the notes of the examination must be read to him or by him, and must be signed by him. It is only then that they may be used in evidence against him.

The notes were not read to or by Mr. Peniston nor did he sign them.

Nevertheless Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux admitted the notes as evidence in the perjury trial because they were of "a public character'' and the Evidence Act permits such documents to be admitted as evidence.

Peniston wins perjury appeal In addition, a UK case on the section of the Bankruptcy Act which deals with public examinations established that oral evidence of the writer of the notes could be used as proof of what was said at the examination.

At Mr. Peniston's trial, however, Mrs. Wade-Miller was not called to give evidence.

The Crown therefore relied on the provisions of the Evidence Act, but the Court of Appeal said they had to be guided by the Bankruptcy Act.

As the conditions set out in that Act were not satisfied, the Court ruled Mr.

Meerabux should not have allowed Mrs. Wade-Miller's notes to be used as evidence.

The affidavit of Mrs. Peniston was signed on May 11 and was purportedly sworn before former UBP Sen. Lawrence Scott. However, according to the Crown, it appeared that Mrs. Peniston never appeared before Mr. Scott and that Mr.

Peniston drafted the affidavit and took another woman to Mr. Scott's office to swear it.

The affidavit said Mrs. Peniston had received the proceeds from the two pension policies. But at the preliminary inquiry of the perjury charges against Mr. Peniston, she said she did not receive the monies.

At the perjury trial she reversed her testimony, saying that she had received the money and then made it available to Mr. Peniston.

The Crown therefore needed to put Mrs. Peniston's deposition (from the preliminary inquiry) to her to show she had made inconsistent statements but she was too ill to attend court.

The Crown then applied to have her deposition tendered in evidence for which Mr. Meerabux gave permission.

The Court of Appeal said however that as Mrs. Pensiton had given oral evidence at the trial, the section of the Indictable Offences Act that the trial judge relied on in giving permission for her deposition to be admitted did not apply.

The deposition should not therefore have been admitted.

The Court of Appeal concluded that: "It is reasonable to infer that the jury must have relied substantially on the inadmissible (evidence) in arriving at their verdict. We are unable to say that absent (this evidence), the jury would have arrived at the conclusions that they did.'' That left the charge of fraudulently concealing property and the Court of Appeal decided that this charge could not stand either.

Mr. Peniston had received the money from the sale of jewellery to Astwood Dickinson on May 10 when the bankruptcy hearing was already underway. On May 23 he admitted that he had it.

The Court of Appeal said the short period of time between the two events could not be regarded as concealment.

The Court therefore quashed the convictions and sentences.

Cleared: Llewellyn Peniston