NEW Kingston businessman Horace Haughton was last night in hospital under police guard after allegedly ingesting a ‘suspicious liquid’ in what police alleged was a possible suicide attempt.

“He is now at the hospital under police guard undergoing several tests,” head of the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) Senior Superintendent Clifford Chambers told the Jamaica Observer yesterday evening.

Haughton, who is accused of fleecing millions of dollars from scores of unsuspecting motor vehicle customers, was held on Wednesday at a carmart by the police in a sting operation.

“We became suspicious after we noticed that his lips were very dry and had several cracks and there were also signs of blood,” a senior investigator told the Observer yesterday.

A decision, the police said, was made to rush him to hospital, but the type of liquid allegedly ingested was not ascertained.

Haughton, who also went by the aliases ‘Omer Haughton’, ‘Dean Haughton’ and ‘Dr Garcia Enriques Perez’, has been charged with money laundering, obtaining money by false pretence and conspiracy to defraud.

The police, in a release, accused Haughton of fleecing more than $9 million from individuals after allegedly promising that he could provide motor vehicles for them on hire purchase if they provide a $70,000 processing fee.

Individuals, who reportedly made downpayments and did not receive their vehicles, then made reports to the police who subsequently launched an investigation, which led to his arrest on Wednesday.