By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THERE WAS a dramatic start to a fraud case in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday in which four former employees of the Bank of Nova Scotia, Ltd., Westgate, Montego Bay, are alleged to have stolen nearly $1.7 million in a credit card scam.
The four men, Sean Evans, Harris Daley, Shane Campbell and Carlton Smith, were at first charged with 22 counts of conspiracy to defraud.
However, an objection by Trevor HoLyn, one of the defence attorneys, saw 19 of the charges being later changed by the prosecution to simple larceny.
Mr. HoLyn raised the objection while the charges were being outlined, noting that "there are no named complainants, just the credit card numbers."
Later, the Crown sought, and was granted, an amendment to the indictments asking for the charges to be changed to simple larceny instead of conspiracy to defraud.
Three counts of conspiracy will, however, remain, with an American woman, Erica Grogan, named as the complainant.
Evans is named in nine indictments involving US$8,650; Daley, in six indictments involving $60,000 and US$9,000; Campbell, who was a porter at the bank, was named in three indictments involving US$4,500 and $3,500, and Smith is named on eight indictments involving US$7,300.
INDICTMENTS
More than one of the accused men were named on four indictments and all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The allegations are that up to July last year the four men were employed by the bank when officials there got queries about some questionable credit card transactions in June and July that year.
The transactions involved cash advances made in Jamaican and U.S. dollar denominations on several credit cards, ostensibly at the request of the card owners.
The money was allegedly paid out on presentation of identification and the signing of receipts.
In the wake of queries, all the transactions were found to be fraudulent and Scotiabank started investigating, the court heard.
Transactions records consisting of receipts in duplicates from credit card machines were examined by bank personnel and it was discovered that 22 were questionable.
On examination of the records, the court heard, several irregularities were found. Some cards were processed by the same teller more than once on the same day but with the cardholder presenting different identification and addresses.
It was also discovered that the same addresses and identification had been used for different cardholders, sometimes by the same teller. Also, signatures which appeared on the face of the record differed from the name of the cardholder.
During investigations, handwriting samples taken from the men, established that Campbell's handwriting had appeared on three of the receipts processed by Daley. Also, Evans's handwriting is said to have appeared on receipts processed by Smith.
Mrs. Grogan who was the first of six prosecution witnesses to take the stand, told the court she was in Jamaica on vacation in April last year and that the only time she took out her credit card was when she was asked to do so at the front desk of the hotel where she stayed.
She said she noticed some things on her credit card statement in July last year and contacted her bank. She said she never used her card while in Jamaica and had not authorised anyone to do so -- not even her husband, who was allowed to use it.
The case will continue on July 19 and 20 this year.
