For­mer To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly­man Han­del Beck­les has been or­dered to re­pay $300,000 plus costs to an el­der­ly cou­ple, af­ter they al­leged that he fraud­u­lent­ly in­duced them to hand over cash over a pe­ri­od of time.

Fitzroy and Cordel­la Pan­tin, both of Bethel, To­ba­go, had sued Beck­les, his wife Mer­le and their church, Im­pact Min­istries To­ba­go, for monies due and ow­ing for breach of con­tract and for fraud­u­lent mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

The mat­ter was heard and de­liv­ered by Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh at the To­ba­go High Court yes­ter­day.

The Pan­tins al­leged that Beck­les and oth­ers fraud­u­lent­ly in­duced them to spend more than $500,000 in cash, ma­te­ri­als and oth­er do­na­tions and pur­chas­es for im­prov­ing a church known as Im­pact Min­istries lo­cat­ed at Mt Pleas­ant, To­ba­go, with promis­es of re­pay­ment. How­ev­er, Beck­les, in his sub­mis­sion to the court, said the Pan­tins’ monies were treat­ed as con­tri­bu­tions, gifts and tithes giv­en freely and vol­un­tar­i­ly to the church and that they were there­fore en­ti­tled to noth­ing.

Through their at­tor­neys, the Pan­tins filed for breach of con­tract and fraud­u­lent mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion against Beck­les.

The court then or­dered Beck­les and the Im­pact Min­istries Church to re­pay the Pan­tin, with­in 28 days, the sum of $300,000 plus their le­gal costs.

The Pan­tins were rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys from Mar­tin George & Com­pa­ny, while Beck­les was rep­re­sent­ed by for­mer Mag­is­trate Michael Broomes.

Beck­les won the Bethel/Mt Irvine seat in the Jan­u­ary 2013 THA elec­tions. He served in the THA as as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Di­vi­sion of Works and In­fra­struc­ture for one term.