MONTEGO BAY, St James — The owner of the information technology firm, Softcom, who is facing multiple fraud charges, on Wednesday promised to compensate those whom he fleeced out of an estimated $1million.

Softcom owner, Horace Haughton, once again appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s court on Wednesday without legal representation.

His case had previously been put off three times to allow Haughton to obtain the services of a lawyer.

When he appeared in court on Wednesday, however, Haughton, nattily attired in a long-sleeved pink shirt and grey pants, offered to plead guilty to all charges against him.

“I’d like the court to grant me the opportunity to make restitution, compensation, to all the persons involved,” he told the court.

Haughton was told to attend court yesterday, following the clerk of court’s assertion that she would need additional preparation time. He was expected to enter a plea, and to renew his offer of compensation, which Resident Magistrate Valerie Stephenson said she would take into account during his sentencing.

On May 6, some 300 Softcom workers staged a noisy demonstration outside the company’s Church Street offices in Montego Bay, claiming that Haughton had defrauded them.

Some workers told the Observer that they were hired with promises of as much as $60,000 per month after statutory deductions, while others were told that they could earn up to $7,000 weekly.

As a condition of employment, however, they said each worker had to fork over $3,025 supposedly for uniforms, which they claimed they never received.

The employees’ jobs included data entry, computer graphics, and telemarketing, as well as the sale of insurance to members of the public.

In addition, according to the workers, their salary cheques bounced. It is also alleged that Haughton used bad cheques to buy computers and other office supplies from business places in Montego Bay.

Haughton has also been charged with simple larceny in connection with the alleged theft of a television and bedspread from a local hotel.

He is alleged to have used a bad cheque on May 5 to pay for a $12,500 five-night stay in the Cariblue Hotel in Montego Bay, and then stolen a television and bedspread, together valued at $17,500, from his hotel room.