Female scammer bonded after pleading guilty, ordered to compensate victims

A woman who scammed some online shoppers of their money with her fake clothing business, was placed on a bond and ordered to pay compensation.

Tasheca Bacchus of Arnos Vale appeared at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court before Senior Magistrate, Colin John where she pleaded guilty to three charges of deception.

Bacchus was charged that on January 11, 2024, at Kingstown by deception, she dishonestly obtained the sum of EC$75 from Erica Williams of Lowmans Leeward with the intention of permanently depriving the said Erica Williams of it.

She was also charged that on January 11, 2024, at Kingstown by deception, she dishonestly obtained EC$200 from Clyde Gurley of Calder with the intention of permanently depriving the said Clyde Gurley of it.

Bacchus’ third charge is that on January 18, 2024, at Kingstown by deception, she dishonestly obtained $100 from Yasmine Charles of Spring Village with the intention of permanently depriving the said Yasmine Charles of it.

On Thursday January, 4, 2024 Vickie Haywood of Buccament was browsing Facebook when she came across a Facebook page by the name of “Kidz World”.

The page had an advertisement seeking persons to complete deliveries. Haywood, who was unemployed at the time, reached out to the page via Facebook Messenger and stated that she was interested in the job.

Bacchus, who impersonated one “Janice Timm”, and claimed to be the owner of this business, responded to Haywood and employed her.

Bacchus solicited the business in the name of the page as mentioned and amassed a total number of 13 clients. The proposed payment was for clients to make a down payment of 50% and 75% respectively, and pay the remainder when they received the items in three weeks.

Bacchus arranged for Haywood to meet with all clients in Kingstown to collect payments on her behalf and issue receipts to each client.

Three of those clients were Gurley, who made a down payment of EC$200 for two children’ sneakers, and slippers which cost EC$250; Williams, who made a down payment of EC$75 for three slippers which cost EC$140; and Charles, who made a down payment of EC$100 for two children’ sneakers which cost $200.

Bacchus, who purported to be the owner of the business, would make arrangements with Haywood, and advise that someone would collect the payments from her.

This was done on three occasions. The first occasion occurred outside of Coreas Mini Mart located at Lower Bay Street, Kingstown; the other occurred outside Randy’s Supermarket, located at Lower Bay Street, Kingstown; and the last occurred at a Dental Clinic which is located on the Compound of Massey Stores, Stoney Grounds.

When collecting the money, Bacchus lied to Haywood and told her that her name is “Rhea”. After several weeks had passed with complaints from clients who were not getting their items Haywood grew suspicious and reached out to the page which stated that there was a delay and that they would inform the clients about the circumstances.

About a week later, Haywood was still receiving complaints from clients as they were yet to receive their goods. Haywood then sent a message to “Rhea”, that the clients be refunded their monies, to which she agreed.

Bacchus then sent several photos of more shoes from different clients to Haywood, and told her that she should collect monies from these people in order to refund the unhappy clients.

This order caused Haywood to grow even more suspicious. As a result, Haywood reported the matter to the Criminal Investigations Department, and PC 105 Castello entertained her report.

PC Castello recorded a statement in writing from her, then carried out investigations into the matter. Haywood made arrangements with Bacchus to meet at Jax Enterprises so that she could collect some additional payments.

On Friday March 1, 2024, Bacchus, who collected the previous payments, arrived on site. The Police were notified; they went to the location and arrested Bacchus on suspicion for the offence of deception and took her into custody at the station at CID.

Bacchus was cautioned and interviewed on two separate occasions by PC Castello in the presence of Justice of the Peace, Kenneth John and Errol Hazell.

During the first interview, Bacchus volunteered a written statement. She later requested a second interview and said that the information that she gave in the first interview was a lie.

During the second interview, Bacchus volunteered a written statement admitting that she was the administrator of the page ‘Kidz World’ and two other pages, namely, ‘Amore Beauty Collections’ and ‘Shop and Smile’, where she solicited money from clients and used Haywood to collect the cash and hand them over to her.

On Sunday, March, 3, 2024 about 1:50 p.m PC Castello charged Bacchus for three counts of deception.

After the facts were read, Bacchus told Senior Magistrate John that she had planned to return the money on the same day she got arrested.

John then ordered that she compensate each of her customers the monies by March 18, 2024, in default of which she will serve three months imprisonment. Bacchus was also bonded on each count for one year in the sum of $500 in default of which she will spend three months in prison.