Three men who denied charges relating to bank fraud will get a trial date after they waited for more than six months.

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe ordered Eldon Robinson, Tiberiu Gavrila and Radu Asavei to appear in Magistrates’ Court on August 12 to arrange a trial date.

Mr Wolffe heard that Mr Asavei, 31, had waited for legal defence after his previous lawyer, Charles Richardson, let him go.

Mr Asavei said that Mr Richardson had offered to recommend him to another lawyer, but has not heard from him since.

He added: “I don’t want to blame anybody, but I do think part of the blame is on Mr Richardson.”

On March 6, Mr Asavei and Mr Gavrila, 44, pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of possession of fake ATM cards between January 20 and 30.

Mr Asavei, from Britain, and Mr Gavrila, from Romania, also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to steal money from HSBC Bermuda and other banks.

The pair, along with Eldon Robinson, 52, from St George’s, denied being in a conspiracy to remove the stolen money from Bermuda.

The alleged conspiracies took place between an unknown date and January 30.

The three were released on $5,000 bail each and the case was adjourned until April 8.

Mr Gavrila and Mr Asavei were ordered to surrender their passports, report to Hamilton Police Station three times a week and to stay at their present address in Pembroke.

Mr Robinson was ordered to visit Hamilton Police Station once a week. Mr Gavrila later broke the conditions of his bail and was remanded in custody.

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