FLORIDA, USA — A Jamaican man remains in custody in Bay County, Florida after he was arrested in connection to scamming a total of US$54,000 (approximately J$8.5 million) from a 92-year-old woman. 

Richard Morgan, 35, an illegal immigrant, was charged on Friday with grand theft and exploitation of the elderly.

“Investigators know Morgan is in Bay County illegally from Jamaica and using the proceeds of this criminal enterprise to fund his stay in the United States,” stated a Facebook post from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

It further stated that its Financial Crimes Unit was first alerted of suspicious activities involving Morgan on February 3.

At that time, Morgan opened an account at a bank and attempted to deposit a US$24,000 cheque “written by someone else to his new account”. 

Morgan gave vague excuses to the teller when he was asked further details about the cheque. He later fled when law enforcement officers arrived at the bank to question him.

Law enforcers subsequently contacted the owner of the cheque who, interestingly, was a 92-year-old woman. She admitted that she had no memory of writing the cheque.

During further enquiries, family members of the senior citizen told investigators that she had been contacted by an unknown man, later identified as Morgan.

He directed the elderly woman to pay a large amount of cash to increase her chance of winning one million dollars from the Publisher’s Clearing House.   

The investigations further revealed that Morgan had already obtained “approximately US$30,000 from the victim and sent those funds to another individual in Jamaica”.

The Jamaican was eventually tracked down and found “hiding out at an address in Callaway to avoid apprehension,” stated the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. 

He was subsequently arrested last Wednesday and charged two days later.