Woman, boyfriend implicated in bank fraud

By TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, December 22, 2011

AN employee of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and her fiancé, who reportedly conspired to steal over $14 million from the bank, were yesterday both remanded when they appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court

The accused are Carol Ferguson, 28, who was employed at bank’s head office in Kingston as a supervisor in the marketing and communication department, and Victor Stewart, 39, contract bearer.

They’re both from Spanish Town, St Catherine.

According to police reports, between September 2009 and November this year, Ferguson reportedly created fictitious invoices in Stewart’s name claiming payments for services rendered by his alleged catering company for NCB branches islandwide.

The money was then paid out and transferred to the accounts of both accused persons, but was later withdrawn by Stewart at various automated banking machines in Kingston and St Catherine.

However, the fraud was uncovered in November this year after the bank carried out an audit and found out that it had made payments of $13.9 million to a fictitious catering company.

The accused were arrested on December 13 after police swooped down on them at their home. They are facing charges of money laundering; conspiracy to defraud and causing the bank to pay out money by false pretense; obtaining money for false pretense; forgery; and uttering forged documents.

When the matter was raised before Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey, the court was informed that defence lawyer Tom Tavares-Finson would be absent and had asked for the matter to be scheduled for today when he will be making a bail application.

However, the investigating officer told the court that the police are objecting to bail as they are continuing their investigations and have discovered other fraudulent activities involving more than $2 million.