SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – A man on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of obtaining money by false pretences and breaches of private security regulations, after collecting money from more than 450 people to have them trained as security guards.

Mark Robinson, who worked as a security officer with the state-run Ports Security Corps, apparently had big dreams of owning his large security company.

The 29-year-old Robinson, a resident of the rural town of Highgate, St Mary, not only collected money to train the more than 450 people as security guards, but even attempted to have some of them placed at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

Police said Robinson charged each ‘trainee’ between $1,000 and $5,000.

On Tuesday, Robinson, in pleading guilty when he appeared in the Spanish Town Criminal Court, begged the magistrate to allow him to repay the money. But Senior St Catherine Resident Magistrate Lorna Errar-Gayle remanded him in custody until Tuesday, June 19, when he will be sentenced.

Detective Sergeant Dale Peart told the court that the former port security guard, who also goes by the name Damian McCormock, identified himself as managing director of Cordon Security Service, which the officer said turned out to be bogus, placed an advertisement in the Daily Gleaner last year for security guards. More than 450 applicants, the police said, turned up and were processed by Robinson at his Gravel Hill office in St Catherine. He collected the ‘training fee’ on the processing of the applications, according to the police.

More than 468 files with information on applicants have been seized by detectives.

According to the police, in November 2006, Robinson dressed 20 men in uniform – gray shirt, black pants and black shoes – and told them to report to a particular person at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston for work. However, when they turned up for ‘work’ they were told that the man had left that post six years ago, the police said.

The following month, the police said, Robinson told 30 men and women he had interviewed to meet him at the same airport in their uniform so they could be assigned duties. However, he did not turn up and airport officials had to call the police to eject the new ‘security guards’ from the premises. It was then that the ‘new guards’ realised that they had been taken for a ride and reported the matter to the Spanish Town police, who subsequently arrested Robinson.

In entering a guilty plea Tuesday, Robinson told the court that the money he charged was for administration fees, which he said included training, identification and for the purchasing of uniform.

“Your honour, I am asking you to allow me to pay back the money to the people,” Robinson pleaded.

But the police told the court that investigations were not complete as they would have to get statements from the affected people. “This amount he has defrauded the applicants has not yet been audited and as you can see, your honour, it is likely that the money charged will exceed three million dollars,” Det Sergeant Peart told the court.

Robinson was then remanded in custody and ordered to have his fingerprints taken.

Det Sergeant Peart said Robinson had swindled people islandwide and he asked that anyone who did business with him to contact the Spanish Town CIB or the Linstead police.