Phone scammer fined $400, ordered to pay $1,250 compensation

A 22-year-old resident of Layou now has a criminal record after he carried out a scam to satisfy his desire for money.

However, Adroy McDowall escaped a prison sentence when he appeared at the Serious Offences Court on Monday, March, 20 where he was fined and ordered to pay compensation for dishonestly obtaining a total of $1,250.00 in cash.

The labourer pleaded guilty that on July 11, 2021 he dishonestly obtained $500.00 from Dishon James of Canada with the intention of permanently depriving him of it .He also pleaded guilty to obtaining another $500.00 from James on July 12, 2021, and $250.00 on July 14, 2021.

According to the facts presented by Police Prosecutor, Corlene Samuel, Lavern King is the owner of an online store through which customers order items and have them shipped at a cost.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the business closed and King’s sister began using one of the business phones.

The sister and the defendant are friends and when she obtained a new phone, she gave the defendant the business phone as he did not own a cell phone.

While he was using the phone he was contacted via Whatsapp by the virtual complainant, James, who placed an order for some items. The defendant who is not affiliated in any way with the business told James that the goods, valued at $500.00 will be sent to him.

James sent the money via Money Gram and the defendant collected the money on the same day. On the next day he requested another $500.00 for shipping and that money was sent and collected.

Then on the following day an additional $250.00 was requested for further assistance with shipping and the complainant sent the money.

After a few days, James did not receive any updates about his order and he sent an email to the business inquiring about it. The owner of the business saw the email and she found it suspicious. She then inquired and discovered that the defendant was using the cell phone without her knowledge.

The matter was reported to the police and an investigation was launched.

Chief Magistrate, Rehanne Browne found the seriousness of the offence to fall into category three, while the consequences of the offence fell into category four.

This brought her to a starting point of a non custodial sentence.

She found aggravating of the offences that they were committed across boarders and were motivated by greed. Mitigating of the offence was that McDowall admitted to the offences.

There were no aggravating factors for him as an offender; mitigating for him was his youthful age; that he had no previous convictions; and is the father of a young child.

He pleaded guilty and this resulted in a 1.3 discount of the fine.

Mc Dowall was ordered to pay compensation of $250.00 by March 31, 2023; he was also ordered to pay $1,000 in compensation by the same date.

Additionally, he was fined $400.00 to be paid by June 30, in default of which he will spend one month in prison.