A Kingston electrician, who reportedly collected $521,000 from six people, claiming he could provide them with security guard jobs in the United States and jobs at the US Embassy in Kingston, was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $600,000 when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

The accused, Eric Miller, of Waterhouse in Kingston, is charged with six counts of obtaining money by false pretence.

The court heard that the complainants, after responding to an advertisement that was placed in a daily newspaper, lodged various sums of money — ranging from $75,000 to $160,000 – into an account that is owned by the accused and the money was subsequently withdrawn from the account.

When the matter was mentioned yesterday, Miller’s attorney, Shannon Clarke, was adamant that her client was innocent and had no knowledge about the alleged job scam.

“The allegations are that they paid money to a bank account after they communicated with a person, but we did not place no ad in the paper and we had no communication with those persons in respect to these jobs,” she said.

Parish Judge Maxine Ellis, however, told her that although the evidence, based on what the Crown is saying, is circumstantial, sometimes it is stronger than the evidence given by eye witnesses.

She then questioned why Miller’s bank account was used to receive the money and how the sums that were received matched the sums that the complainants told the police they had lodged after calling the number that was given in the advertisement.

“Who in their right mind would be putting money in a stranger’s account? You must be a ninny,” the judge remarked.

Clarke, however, insisted that her client did not have any contact with the complainants and was not aware how the money came to be lodgeD in his account.

Miller was subsequently granted bail with reporting condition and is to return to court on May 21.

– Tanesha Mundle