Adrian Frater, News EditorWESTERN BUREAU:
FIRST VICE-president of the Hanover Football Association (HFA) and treasurer of the Jamaica Football Federation Western Confederation (JFFWC), Mark Calvin, has become the first casualty of a major financial scandal in western Jamaica's football, which The Gleaner revealed earlier this week.
Calvin, who has admitted to making several unauthorised bank transactions involving the accounts of the Western Referees Group (WRG), has complied with requests from the leadership of the HFA and the JFFWC that he resign from both his executive positions.
"Mr. Calvin has confirmed drawing two cheques on the account of the WRG," said Lorraine Scringer, the president of the Hanover FA and general secretary of the JFFWC.
With immediate effect
In his resignation letters, copies of which were obtained by The Gleaner, Calvin stated that, "it is with great regret that I am not in a position to perform my duties. With immediate effect, I am tendering my resignation".
In another startling development, in a written statement given to The Gleaner, Scringer said that when the HFA questioned Calvin, he confessed to signing the name of the chairman of the Western Confederation, Everton Tomlinson, who is not a signatory on the account, on one of the cheques.
"Mr. Calvin has further confirmed that he signed the said cheques using the name/signature Everton Tomlinson, chairman of the Western Confederation, and that this action was done without the knowledge of the said Everton Tomlinson," Scringer's statement said. "He further said that Mr. Tomlinson was in no way, shape or form involved in any of the transactions previously referred to."
Tampered with account
In the transactions in question, the WRG discovered that persons without the requisite authorisation had tampered with its account and that cheques, including one for $7,000, which was encashed, and one for $1.1 million, which was apparently intercepted by the bank, were processed fraudulently.
The matter was referred to the Area One Fraud Squad.
"The only persons authorised to do bank transactions on behalf of the WRG is myself, assistant treasurer Christopher Mitchell and chairman Texchus Nembhard," said WRG treasurer Everol Jenkins.
"That is why we brought the transactions in question to the attention of the police."
Calvin, who once served as treasurer of the WRG in a previous administration, has written to the Jamaica Football Referees Association (JFRA), of which he is a member, admitting he was the person involved in the transaction. However, he did not tender his resignation to that body.
"He has admitted that he had signed the cheques on his own," said JFRA president Peter Prendergast, who described Calvin as a delinquent member of the group. "I have a document in my possession speaking to that."
adrian.frater@gleanerjm.com
