Man faces 90 charges of fraud

THE CORPORAL IN charge of investigating over 90 charges of fraud, has been lauded by the prosecution as having done a ‘tremendous’ job.

Tedroy McRee, who has 90-plus charges of fraud facing him, with a total sum of EC$42,057; US$430 and CAN$300, having been allegedly wrangled out of his victims, pleaded guilty to some of these charges on April 16.

McRee pleaded guilty to four counts of dishonestly obtaining sums of money from one Jefferson Lewis of Calder, with the intention of permanently depriving him of such. The dates for the four charges were January 12, March 11, March 5 and March 14 of 2016, with the sums being deprived being $175, $100, $1,640 and $400, respectively.

He further pleaded guilty to deceiving Rose-Claire Spencer of Redemption Sharpes. On June 3, of 2016, he was charged with dishonestly obtaining two sums, these being $500 and $450, on June 25 and July 11, the sums of $300 and $950, respectively, were also obtained.

McRee had decided to plead guilty at the preliminary inquiry.

The defendant, by way of pretending to be a recruiting agent with the cruise line ‘Royal Caribbean’, tricked the complainants into paying money for registration, visas, medical and passage, while promising them that they would go sailing with the cruise line.

He did not demand all of the money at once, but invented new reasons why he needed more money, until the persons eventually became wise to his ways.

He even was said to use an alias “Kev” and told Spencer that she must “look sharp” on one occasion, because the ship was waiting.

Lewis had made a report to the police, which brought the matter to Corporal Duncan of the Major Crimes Unit and from that, Prosecutor Adolphus Delpesche stated that a “very intense investigation was mounted” and the investigations spread far and wide, culminating in the charges before the court.

Not only the huge amount of paperwork associated with the charges, but also the fact that the list of people involved seemed ever growing, the investigations took a while to complete.

Delpesche, turning to the Corporal in court, commented, “Fraud is not an easy thing to investigate. You did a tremendous job”.

After scrambling by his family to get the money for the complainants, McRee was able to find the $2,315 for Lewis, which was ordered to be paid forthwith, in default of which there would be a prison sentence of seven months imposed. He was also bonded for nine months in the sum of $1,500.

With regard to Spencer, who was owed $1,700, as $500 had already been paid to her, McRee was given until May 7 to pay her. Failing this, he will spend six months in jail. He is also bonded for six months to the sum of $1,000.

Spencer became irate when McRee’s mother had given her money in error, when the money was instead meant for Lewis.

She shouted to McRee in court saying, “Mista you were supposed to pay me…,” before court was brought to order.

Outside the court Spencer continued to ask the defendant what was she going to do about a woman who is asking her for her money.

McRee managed to pay Lewis the compensation and walked out of court a free man.

TEDROY MCREE