THE 14 people accused in the St James lottery scam were again told Tuesday that they still have to wait longer before the case goes to trial.

When the 14 – Jomo Bernard, Sasha-Kay Ricketts, Shanon Ricketts, Cleopatra Bent, Stascha Smith, Shane Cameron, Kenley Stephens, Damion Marshall, Shameka Headley, Lenroy Campbell, Dwight Burton, David Perry, Khilela Hardy and Stephen Allen, all of Montego Bay, St James – appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court Tuesday, the prosecution said officers investigating the matter were still in the process of contacting the overseas complainants to have them provide evidence.

The prosecution also said it was experiencing problems in confirming dates on which the complainants could come to Jamaica to give their evidence, and asked that the matter be postponed until the issues could be finalised.

This, however, annoyed the lawyers representing the accused persons, who said that some of the 14 had been coming to court in relation to the matter since February, and that they had deliberately choosen a lengthy period between the last date in the matter in July and Tuesday’s appearance to allow the prosecution to wrap up its investigations.

Attorney Linton Walters, who represented Kenley Stevens, Damion Marshall and Sasha-Kay Ricketts, said the situation was compounded by the fact that defence lawyers had yet to receive statements pertaining to the matter from the police.

“I would be grateful if the crown could tell us what is going on and if they have a case. Because if they cannot even provide statements then they need to do what is right with regards to these people,” Walters said.

The presiding magistrate, Glen Brown, then ordered that the matter be rescheduled for January 16 next year, noting that he expected the prosecution to have finalised all the matters pertaining to the case so that it could be set for trial.

He then extended the $300,000 bail bond set for the 14 accused until that time.

The alleged lottery scam came to public prominence in February after several reports were made to the police that overseas persons were being conned out of their money.

According to the police, the perpetrators of the scam would obtain the names and addresses of telemarketing customers who had purchased sweepstake tickets online. They would then contact these customers by telephone and inform them that they had won the lottery. These customers would then be told to pay processing fees of up to US$5,000.