The Bahamas Bar Council has deferred its decision on disbarred lawyer Leon Smith's application to practice again.  Smith was disbarred in 2001 after $400,000 reportedly went missing from a client's account. Smith applied for readmission in 2008 and once again in October last year.  Officers from the Central Detective Unit arrested and questioned Smith over allegations of fraud as he left the reinstatement hearing last year.

At last year's hearing, a representative for Colina Insurance Ltd. told the council how Smith allegedly incurred over $2.5 million in losses for Imperial Life by reportedly obtaining mortgages for himself and his clients, while acting as an attorney for Imperial Life in the negotiations.
Legal action is still continuing. Colina reported Smith to the Bar Association in 2004, but learned that he had already been disbarred.

The Colina representative said: "The consideration for this council is the protection of the public, and it is for the greater good of society that the Bar must decide whether or not it's for the good of society to allow Mr. Smith to practice.  "And Colina Insurance says he should not be allowed to practice again because these are offenses, acts of dishonesty and we have not been able to recover this money."  In a 2003 judgment, Senior Justice John Lyons found that Smith fraudulently quieted land in Pinewood Gardens for John Sands.

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