BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT is no secret that businessman and calypsonian Cecil ‘Rock-a-fella’ Rock had recently spent one week at Her Majesty’s Prison for failing to obey a court order to pay his debt.
Although claiming that he had a wonderful time “vacationing” at the correctional facility, Rock expressed his view to SKNVibes that instead of debtors be made to go prison, a payment plan should be drafted which better suits the debtors pocket.
“I am one who believe that nobody should go to jail for debt. There should be some kind of arrangement made that people can pay, because, for instance, you put somebody in jail for a month or a week, that is doing the person more harm. Maybe some people are doing it just to embarrass the person. When I was in prison, all the newspapers and the media had it up and down the place, Rock is in jail.
“What they can do, for instance, if a man owes COURTS or TDC, or if he owes the bank, make some kind of arrangement. If he is supposed to pay $10 and he can’t pay $10, make an arrangement so he would have to pay $3. Because if you are going to take a man off his job, he has bills to pay and you would be actually putting him down in a deeper hole. You are not really doing anything to help the situation.”
Rock explained that he was incarcerated because he failed to pay a $24 000 debt he owed to the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank. And asked why he failed to pay the debt, the businessman explained that the industry within which he works [the tourism industry] is largely uncertain and things were not financially well with him.
“I was sent to jail because I owed. Going to jail did not help me because I am still in the same situation. The debt at the time was $24 000 and I owed it to National Bank. The whole thing is that I work in the tourism industry, I have no other means of making money and they know the economy and how the tourist ships run here…Just the other day there was a big ship in here and I made US$5. I was not paying because things were not well with me.”
Rock noted that since being released from prison he has “paid up a lot and I just owe a little bit now”, and that a deal for the payment the remaining debt has been worked out.
