Speedy Cash Partner Plan victims file suit

By Nagra Plunkett, Freelance Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

FIFTEEN PEOPLE, alleging breach of contract, have filed a lawsuit in the Resident Magistrate's Civil Court in Montego Bay, against Esmie Jones, operator of the failed "Speedy Cash Partner Plan" in the second city, to recover money which they said they invested in the get-rich-quick scheme.

Mrs. Jones, 64, a retired school teacher is being sued for just over $2 million.

The case is to come up in court on November 15 for mention.

The "Speedy Cash Partner Plan", one of many pyramid schemes which had sprung up in western Jamaica between late last year and April this year, collapsed in March. The plan promised quick returns on small investments in a short period. After its inception in November 2000, branches were opened in Falmouth, Trelawny; Savanna-la-mar, Westmoreland; and Brown's Town, St. Ann.

The Police Area One Fraud Squad intervened after protests and numerous complaints by angry depositors demanding the refund of their deposits. In the wake of the reports, charges of fraudulent conversion of over $20 million was levelled against Mrs Jones in April when she was picked up by Montego Bay police in Windsor, St. Elizabeth.

She remained in custody until September when she took up the $1 million bail that was offered her in June by Resident Magistrate Paulette Williams.

Mrs Jones told the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Criminal Court each time she was taken before it, that she had no money to hire a lawyer or to take up bail.

Her trial on fraud charges, is to begin on December 5 in the RM Criminal Court, Montego Bay.

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