The illegal occupation of house saga engulfing Opposition Spokesman on Agriculture and Northern Trelawny MP, the PNP’s Victor Wright, is deepening.
The state-owned SCJ Holdings company limited says it will be instructing its attorneys to file a claim in the Supreme Court, seeking recovery of possession of the Government-owned house, which it says Mr. Wright has been occupying for six years without a valid lease.
The SCJ says it has also instructed its lawyers to use the court to recover more than 3-million dollars of expenses allegedly racked up by the Opposition MP in connection with his occupation of the house.
The SCJ Holdings company says by letter dated June 4, 2014, it wrote to Mr. Wright, giving notice to him that the SCJ will not grant him any further lease of the property.
Further, the SCJ says it also gave Mr. Wright “Notice to Quit and Deliver up possession of the property to the SCJ on or before July 4, 2014″.
The SCJ is alleging that at time, Mr. Wright owed 1-hundred-and-27-thousand dollars in rent.
According to the SCJ, the records disclosed that Mr. Wright had disputed the quantum of rent that had been demanded by SCJ.
In response, the SCJ says it wrote to Mr. Wright, on June 23, 2014, advising that in light of his claim of a discrepancy between his records and the SCJ’s records, he should supply the SCJ with copies of all the receipts in his possession for lease rental and utility charges pertaining to the property.
But, the state owned company says there is no evidence on file that Mr. Wright ever produced to the SCJ with any of the alleged receipts.
The SCJ says despite this failure and a subsequent notice that he vacate the property by June 4, 2014, Mr. Wright failed to quit and deliver up the premises to the SCJ, as was required.
The company is also alleging that no payment was made by Mr. Wright for the first 18 months of the lease.
According to the SCJ, its review shows that the Northern Trelawny MP, made five payments on account of rental, totaling in aggregate 80-thousand dollars.
The company says accordingly, the outstanding rental, which currently remains payable by Mr. Wright, is 674-thousand dollars.
According to the SCJ, following a review, it was discovered that Mr. Wright made three payments on his electricity bill which totaled 60-thousand dollars.
But, the SCJ says Mr. Wright still owes just under 3-million dollars in electricity charges in connection with the property which he continues to occupy regardless of there being no evidence of a valid lease agreement.
According to the SCJ, its affiliate entity the Sugar Company of Jamaica owes Mr. Wright 5-hundred thousand dollars in connection with a separate matter when he was made redundant from the sugar factory.
On Monday, Mr. Wright denied owing money to the Government.
