Four-member family found guilty of defaulting on apartment bill

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

A four-member family was yesterday found guilty of defaulting on an apartment bill in Colombo and the householder was sentenced to one-year suspended imprisonment by a Colombo Court.  

The main accused, Smith Bernard, a father of two children, had over five similar cases of defaulting star class hotel bills.

The magisterial inquiry held against the family over defaulting on a bill amounting to Rs. 129,000 at Hilton Residence in Colombo found it guilty of the charges.

Accordingly, the prime instigator of the incident was sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment suspended for five years after being found guilty of the defaulting charges.

While releasing the other members of the family (the mother and two children) from the case, Colombo Fort Magistrate ordered the Police that their fingerprints also be recorded at the Court’s Police post.

The main accused was further ordered to pay a fine of Rs. 1,500 for the second charge by Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne.     

In this case, making a complaint with the Slave Island Police, a manager of JAIC Hilton Residence in Colombo alleged that the four family members had stayed at his apartment in Colombo 2 and defaulted on a payment amounting to Rs. 129,000. 

The complainant alleged that the main accused Bernard had reserved two rooms in the apartment for a period of two months promising to pay a sum of $ 3,900 dollars per month.

When the apartment administration asked them to pay an initial payment, the main accused (father) had failed to do so. However, family members had used its facilities for four days without paying the bill.

The four family members have been identified as residents of Mutwal Street, Colombo 15.

Police had charged that the main accused had several cases in several courts regarding similar offences.