A full bench of the Fiji Court of Appeal has refused FICAC's application for special leave to appeal out of time.

The bench consisting of Justice Wiliam Marshall, Justice Kankani Chitrasiri and Justice Sriskandarajah ruled that FICAC had failed to show special circumstances for the granting of special leave to appeal out of time in terms of Rule 44(14) of the Court of Appeal Rules.

FICAC filed a Notice of Appeal on 29^th November 2010, served same to the Accused on the same date, but failed to file a copy of the notice that was served on the Accused according to the Court of Appeal Rules. The Appeal was against a High Court judgment to acquit Sakuisa Tuisolia of three counts of fraudulent conversion and three counts of fraudulent falsification of account.

A letter dated 30th May 2011 was sent to FICAC from the Registry of the Court of Appeal notifying it that the appeal was marked deemed abandoned on 07^th December 2010 for non-compliance of the Court of Appeal Rules.

FICAC Prosecutor Vinsent Perera had informed the bench that the Commission had sought special leave to appeal out of time on 27th July 2011.

Perera attributed the delay to an officer who was in charge of the case who ceased to be an employee of FICAC on the first week of July.   He added that he came to know that the appeal was deemed abandoned only upon taking over all his cases.

Perera contended that there was no intention by FICAC to abandon the appeal and that non-compliance of the Court of Appeal rule was not intentional.

However, after considering the application, the full bench concluded that there are no special circumstances for the grant of special leave to appeal out of time, in view of the Appeal being deemed abandoned for the non-compliance of the Court of Appeal rules in December 2010.