WESTERN BUREAU:

A 24-year-old woman who allegedly defrauded $3 million from the City of Kingston Co-operative Credit Union branch in Montego Bay, St James, had her $1-million bail rescinded, following allegations that she was recently charged for a similar offence in Kingston.

Tricia Thomas, of a Duhaney Park address in Kingston, was remanded when she appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Resident Magistrate Winsome Henry gave her a September 2 trial date for the first matter.

In the new case against Thomas, it is alleged that she went to a financial institution in Kingston, impersonated an attorney and obtained $3.5 million.

Ex-policeman

However, her co-accused in the COK matter, ex-policeman Lerone Nicholson - charged with conspiracy to defraud - was readmitted to bail in the sum of $1 million with the condition that he report to the Fraud Squad in Kingston on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

He was taken into custody last month after he absconded bail last year.

Thomas and Nicholson were charged jointly with three others: 32-year-old Gresham Fletcher; Chinnel Francis, 20; and Annie Hibbert, 44, all of Kingston addresses. The case against Fletcher, Francis and Hibbert was adjourned indefinitely after the prosecution expressed a difficulty in proving the conspiracy charge against them.

It is alleged that, on July 13, 2006, Thomas went to COK, Montego Bay, to acquire a $3-million loan that she told the manager she required to buy land. She allegedly presented a Jamaican passport and a COK identification card in the name 'Jedine Johnson' and gave satisfactory answers to questions asked.

She picked up the cheque the following day and later cashed it at Bank of Nova Scotia at Cross Roads, Kingston.