Fonseca, a member of the ruling People?s United Party, ran City Hall until the March 1, 2006, elections, when the Opposition UDP mayor, Zenaida Moya, took over.

The very day before the elections Fonseca wrote a cheque to the City Council for $4,000. The bank returned the rubber cheque on March 3 and billed the Council $21.80 for it. There were at least 11 prior cheques that Fonseca wrote in favor of the Council between October 7, 2005, and February 28, 2006. Seven of them, amounting to nearly $15,000, were written in February alone. They all bounced.

In March, Moya went to the police to file a complaint, and the police took the case files, but our newspaper was later informed that it was the DPP who would have decided whether charges would be filed against Fonseca.

Seven months after the complaint and on the prodding of the City Council, the DPP informed them that they would not press charges against Fonseca.

In an October 30 letter to DPP Anderson, Moya told him that the public and the media were flooding the Council with queries about the case and she requested an update.

That?s when Anderson wrote her back, in a letter dated November 8 and delivered to the Council on the same day, that Fonseca would have no charges to answer.

?This office hereby informs you that, to date, it has only received from the Belize Police Department, one case file related to the investigation of the alleged theft? This office is rather surprised that its decision in that regard has not been made known to your office by the Officer-in-charge of the criminal investigation branch in Belize City?Superintendent Chester Williams.?

Williams stonewalled us this evening when we contacted him. He told Amandala that he would not comment on anything that the DPP said.

Speaking with our newspaper this evening Moya said that the Council submitted all the necessary documents to the police, including all information on the bounced cheques, the salary advances, and funds used under the social assistance budget. She claims that she handed over more files than the DPP said he received.

?We totally do not agree with the decision,? Moya said. ?We got the letter yesterday evening and immediately the reaction by all those who were around was that it?s unfair?. the DPP?s flimsy excuse as to why no criminal charge or charges should be made, we don?t accept that.?

She said that the precedent for charging someone accused of such a crime has been set. A mother of five, Moya said, was sentenced to five years in prison even though she offered to pay money she was accused of taking.

Mayor Moya furthermore noted the connection between former mayor, David Fonseca, and the two Cabinet ministers who are in charge of the police and the DPP?s office. Respectively, they are the ex-mayor?s brother, Hon. Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Home Affairs, and David Fonseca?s cousin, Francis Fonseca, Attorney General.

Anderson told the Council that they may bring civil action against David Fonseca to recover monies allegedly taken while he was in office. Moya said that they would be discussing the matter with their attorney, Michael Peyrefitte.

She also informed us that Fonseca has paid the Council all the money he received through salary advances and bounced cheques, but nothing that was used under the social assistance program has been returned to the Council.

Fonseca, who declined an interview with our newspaper when the story first broke, had told local television stations that the money spent under the social assistance program was not for his personal gain but to assist the poor.