MoBay men freed from fraud rap
MONTEGO BAY, St James — TWO Montego Bay men who conspired to utter forged cheques at a Montego Bay cambio walked free from the Montego Bay Resident Magistrates Court on Monday after the complainant decided not to press charges.
Montego Bay businessman Christopher Chow told the court he had been fully compensated for the loss of over $20,000 and therefore was not interested in pressing any charges against Phillip Ellis and Jovan Dawkins.
The men had been charged with obtaining money by forged documents, namely cheques drawn on the account of Tank Weld Limited.
The court was told that Ellis had gone to Chow’s cambio on May 29 with a checque for $20,614.62 which he encashed.
Later that same day it was heard that several other cheques on the same account were taken to the cambio. Suspicions were aroused and evidence of fraud discovered.
The court heard that TankWeld was called and it was heard that the cheques had been forged.
Ellis later went back with another cheque for $114,082.14. He was held by security and the fraud squad called.
The court heard that Ellis then took the police to a house in Pitfour where Dawkins was pointed out as the man who had given him the cheques. He was also held.
Dawkins, the court heard, could not give a good account of where he got the cheques and both were both charged.
