Four months ago a jury found Marcus Nicolas, a former Member of Parliament for Dennery North and Opposition Leader, guilty at trial for the offence of Uttering or Using False Documents. On April 12, Nicolas was given a six month prison sentence for his crime. He was initially arrested and charged in 2017. In the decade preceding his arrest and subsequent conviction, Marcus Nicolas was a political juggernaut in Dennery North. As a United Workers Party candidate he twice deprived the Labour Party of electoral victory in the Dennery North constituency in 2001 and again in 2006. Marcus Nicolas was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the Sir John Compton led UWP Administration of 2006 – 2011. However, along with Sir John’s passing, Nicolas’ ministerial career also came to a sudden end when Stephenson King took over the UWP reins. After two successful election runs, Marcus Nicolas abstained from the 2011 ballot and subsequently defected to a life in the private sector. His private sector pursuits were upended in 2017 when police showed up at his premises and took him into custody. The former Opposition Leader was granted bail in the sum of $3,000. During his 2021 trial some four years after his arrest, prosecutors convinced a jury Marcus Nicolas intentionally used “False Documents” in his tax submissions. The nine member jury returned their majority guilty verdict after deliberating for less than three hours. After his sentencing, the two term UWP MP was handed over to officers attached to the Bordelais Correctional Facility to begin his prison term.
