NICOLE Fullerton, former acting operations manager of the failed Caldon Finance Group, was yesterday sentenced to 12 months in prison for fraud.

Fullerton, who was late last year found guilty of obtaining money by false pretences and fraudulent conversion, was sentenced yesterday when she appeared before the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court.

However, immediately after being sentenced by RM Judith Pusey, Fullerton’s attorney, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, gave notice that she intended to appeal the guilty verdict, and Fullerton was subsequently granted bail in the sum of $6 million, pending the outcome of the appeal.

When the matter was called up in court, Samuels-Brown presented three character witnesses, including Dr Aggrey Irons, who Fullerton had been seeing in recent months, to give testimony on her client’s behalf. She then made submissions to the magistrate to secure a non-custodial sentence for her client.

At the end of Samuels-Brown’s submissions however, Pusey remained firm in her decision to imprison Fullerton for both offences and sentenced her to 12 months in prison on both charges. However, the sentences will run concurrently, leaving Fullerton to serve only 12 months behind bars.

Nicole Fullerton and her father, Henry, were both charged with obtaining money by false pretences and fraudulent conversion after businessman Colin Karjohn entrusted them with US$133,000 and J$10 million. Karjohn lost his investment after the financial institution went bankrupt and was liquidated in 1998.

Karjohn then filed a complaint with the Police Fraud Squad and the Fullertons were arrested and charged in 2003.