KINGSTON, Jamaica- Eight Jamaican women who were arrested following a police raid of a West Bay Street strip club in the Bahamas were fined on September 14 and ordered to return home.

The Bahamas Tribune reported that Tenella Salmon, Lamore Adams, Doreen Taylor, Stacy-Anne Andrews, Sabrina Scott, Latoya Depaque, Corneila Chambers and Policia Peet, were each ordered to pay to court fines ranging from $1,500 to $2,500.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethel advised the women to seek an honest living in their own country when the court receives proof that the fines are settled.

The article said that during the trial, the prosecution presented several graphic accounts based on the testimony of undercover officers on the night the club was shut down. Immigration officials also testified that all of the women had at some point obtained fraudulent extension of stay stamps. None of the women would tell the Chief Magistrate who gave them the fake stamps.

Each of them pleaded guilty to the charges which ranged from overstaying their permitted time in the Bahamas, soliciting, prostitution, and working without the proper documents.

The club owners Dennis Halamino and Chantel Hill were put on $7,500 bail with two sureties and told to return to court on January 18, next year.

Halamino owns at least other clubs in New Providence, which include Tropicana, Downtown, Nassau and Casablanca.

The article said that on the night, Assistant Superintendent of Police Dorsett, appearing for the prosecution said several plain clothed officers entered a room in the club where a woman was dancing topless on a pole. Men who sat around the pole threw money at the woman. The woman was later identified as Lamore Adams. The other women in the room, according to the officers, were scantily dressed in what appeared to be either bikinis or bras with panties.

When the officer sat down, he was approached at least three times by the women who offered him lap-dances at a cost of $10.  

It was reported that the officer, upon receiving the dances, further testified that one of the women, exposed herself which revealed several tattoos and piercings. The officer was then invited to have sex with the woman at a cost of $150. The dancer pointed out another room that was available for sexual activity. The room fee would be $50 the prosecution said. The officer did not take her up on the offer, he added.

The evidence said the same officer was approached by another woman offering a lap dance who also exposed herself and again offered sex for $200.

After a series of the same offers and behaviour from other women, a number of officers entered the club, turned the lights on and found the women scrambling in a back room to dress themselves. They were all arrested and taken to Central Police Station for questioning.