Former credit union loans officer on $400,000
A woman is facing several fraud charges in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court after allegedly defrauding GSB Credit Union of more than $400,000.
The woman, Noelle Stewart, a former loan officer at the credit union and a resident of Waterford in St Catherine, has been charged with forgery, uttering forged documents and obtaining money by forged documents.
According to court documents, Stewart forged a number of loan application forms and was able to create new ‘add-on’ loans to the accounts of several customers. Stewart, the documents said, allegedly retrieved the money by making the cheques for the loans payable to her personal account and that of her friends.
On September 12, one of the customers whose account was allegedly affected came to the credit union and after being informed of the add-on loan the customer became furious and it was subsequently discovered it had been fraudulently processed. Other fictitious loan applications were allegedly discovered.
The credit union, the court documents said, cancelled the fictitious loans and reimbursed the customers whose accounts were affected by the fraud.
Following police investigations into the matter, Stewart was arrested and charged on September 25.
When Stewart appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, she told presiding magistrate Judith Pusey, through her attorney, that she would make efforts to reimburse the money lost to the credit union. This drew Pusey’s ire, however, as she noted that many persons had been going to court on fraud charges expecting to repay the monies lost without facing court-imposed punishments.
Stewart’s attorney then told Pusey that the accused intended to repay the monies as well as face any sentence that the court was minded to impose. A tally of the amount defrauded from the credit union showed a figure of $496,000 and counting.
Pusey then granted Stewart bail in the sum of $300,000 and also ordered her to surrender her travel documents. A stop order was also put into effect for Stewart, and she was also ordered to report to the Cross Roads Police Station weekly. She is scheduled to return to court on October 9.
