A man who reportedly chartered a taxi but failed to pay at the end of his journey is to be tried in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court in January.

The trial date was scheduled on Monday after the accused, Delando Clarke, pleaded not guilty to obtaining credit by fraud.

He told the court that he was not the one who chartered the complainant’s taxi and that it was the second time he was seeing the complainant.

As a result, Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey indicated that there was an issue of identity and scheduled the matter for trial. Clarke’s bail was also extended.

According to a police report on the day in question, Clarke was at the Boulevard Shopping Centre in St Andrew when he chartered the complainant’s taxi to take him to Twin Gates Plaza in Half-Way-Tree.

It is further alleged that when the accused got to his destination, he told the driver that he needed to get the money from the ATM machine and asked the driver to take him to Cross Roads instead.

However, it is alleged that when he got to Cross Roads, he got out of the car and ran off without paying his fare of $1,500.

Clarke was later arrested and charged after the complainant saw him at the National Insurance Office in Kingston and summoned

the police.