Laughter erupted in the St Andrew Resident Magistrate’s Court last Thursday after it was reported that an accused man told another that he was the United States Ambassador to Jamaica and collected $17,00O from him to get a US visa.

The accused, Dudley Thompson, was arrested and charged with obtaining money by false pretence after he reportedly tricked the complainant and collected his money but could not provide the visa.

However, when Thompson was asked by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey to respond to the allegation, he evaded the question claiming that his lawyer was not present.

“I didn’t ask you that,” Pusey told him before rescheduling the matter for Friday when his lawyer was expected to appear on his behalf.

But on Friday when he appeared in court he pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded in custody for trial on March 19.

Fisherman fined $20,000 warned to stay away from ‘girlfriend’

A fisherman who was strongly infatuated with a woman whom he claimed as his girlfriend, and assaulted her after she visited another man’s home, was last week warned to stay away from the woman and fined $20,000 in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Edgar Aiken was in his hometown in Port Royal when he witnessed the complainant coming from another man’s house and got upset. A dispute developed during which Aiken punched the woman in her eye, causing it to swell.

When the matter first came before the court in January, Aiken said that he and the complainant were involved in a relationship, but this was quickly denied by the complainant who said that they never had a relationship.

“The woman wicked, me and her inna relationship from over four year,” Aiken had insisted and as a result was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

However, on the last occasion before the court, the report showed that he there was nothing wrong with him mentally, and Aiken maintained that the complainant was his lady love and even told the court that she had made love to him.

The complainant told the court that she did not have a clue as to what he was talking about.

Aiken had however pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and a social enquiry report was requested by the magistrate.

On Thursday when Aiken returned to court for sentencing, Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey, after reading the report, again enquired from the complainant what was her relationship with Aiken.

“He is someone I have known for a while but we’ve never had a relationship,” she said.

Pusey then asked her if she had ever collected money from Aiken or if he had ever given her money to care for her children and the complainant said that he had given her money but it was only once he had given her money for her children.

Pusey then told Aiken that he needed to leave the complainant alone and stop being obsessed with her.

“Stay away from her. If she come back up here and tell me say you come anywhere near her you going off to prison,” she warned.

He was then ordered to pay the fine or serve six months in prison.

Truthful thieves get six months for phone robbery

Three young adults, including a woman who held up a schoolgirl and robbed her of her cellular phone and headphone, were each sentenced to six months in prison.

Oshane Barnes, 19, Raheem Bailey, 20, both of Race Course addresses and Shenelle Wonder, 21, of Denham Town, all in Kingston, were sentenced by the magistrate after they pleaded guilty to robbery with aggravation.

The court heard that on February 26 about 6:30 pm the complainant was at the intersection of Red Hills Road and Washington Boulevard in Kingston when the three accused robbed her of a Motorola phone valued at $9,000 and a headphone valued at $500.

However, the accused, despite pleading guilty, each denied playing an active role in the robbery.

“Your Honour, it wasn’t planned. I was going to buy DPH (cough syrup) for my son when Barnes say ‘look at the girl with har phone’ and same time Bailey go up to har and grab onto her and as I was walking up to her she hand me her phone saying tek it, tek it,” she said.

“Is when me take the phone me really a wonda weh me do. It is the honest truth, I swear,” Wonder stated.

But Bailey challenged Wonder’s account of the incident, stating that he was walking in front of her and had only turned around to see her pulling the phone from the schoolgirl.

“Your Honour, I swear, him hold har and she just get scared and gimme di phone,” Wonder said.

Barnes, for his part, said that his only role in the incident was that he had pointed out to them that the girl had a phone.

“The three of us were walking and I was at the front and they were at the back and when I look I see the two of them coming with a phone,” he said.

But the prosecutor told the court that they were all lying, after reading the complainant’s account.

According to the schoolgirl, both men walked up to her and Wonder stepped in front of her and started pulling the phone. Bailey, she said, then grabbed onto her hand and Barnes held onto her school bag.

The complainant said Wonder then started to pat her waistband as if to see if she had a weapon, and because she was fearful, she gave her the phone saying “tek it, tek it and Wonder said “then jus gimme it nuh.”

Pusey then told them that they were all trying to minimise their roles in the incident but that she was going to send them away to serve time for their actions.

“Little children must be able to walk on the road with their phones without being ganged by the three of you,” she told them before handing down the sentence.

Laundromat worker in trouble for ‘borrowing’ money without permission

A laundromat worker who pocketed $217,000 from the company where she was employed, was given a little less than a month to return the money in full after she claimed that she had only borrowed it.

The accused, Patrice Murray, was employed by Super Cleaner’s Laundry Limited in Kingston as a customer service clerk and over several days during 2013 she pocketed varying amounts of cash ranging from $1,060 to $196,000, that was collected from customers.

However, the theft was discovered sometime after and she was arrested and charged with six counts of embezzlement.

But Murray after pleading guilty told the court that “it was borrowed and not stealing.”

According to her, she had borrowed the money to pay a loan but later told her manager and had started repayment.

“You can’t borrow without permission and that story don’t mek sense,” Pusey told her.

The magistrate then asked her if she had anything to say before the sentencing and Murray said that she had made arrangements to pay back the money.

“I am going to give you the opportunity to pay everything and you will pay me,” Pusey told her.

She was then instructed to return to court on April 1 with the money. Her bail was extended until that time.