A man who was charged after over $1.2 million went missing from a couple’s bank account was brought before the St James Parish Court on Monday.

Jowayne Gardener appeared before presiding parish judge Sasha-Marie Smith-Ashley to answer to 17 counts of receiving stolen property.

He is represented by attorney-at-law Suwayne Phillips.

According to the allegations, sometime in November 2022, the male complainant was making a deposit to his business account at the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Santa Cruz branch when he recognised it was substantially lower than it should have been.

Checks were made with a supervisor at the same bank, resulting in a printout that revealed multiple transfers that the complainant was not aware of, to names he was unfamiliar with, one of which was the accused.

The second complainant, who is a joint account holder, was contacted, and she stated that she did not know of any of the transactions.

Following investigations, several persons, including a friend and associate of the accused, were listed as persons of interest. The friend is believed to be the ultimate beneficiary of many of these transfers, according to reports.

On November 10, 2022 at about 3:00 pm, Gardener was found at a call centre in Montego Bay and asked about the sum transferred to his account by his friend. He reportedly claimed that the money was for Forex Trading.

When shown a list of the transfers, he stated that he couldn’t account for the funds transferred to his account by his friend. According to him, he provided his friend his bank account, withdrew the money and gave it to him.

According to court documents, a total of $1,245,483.61 was deposited into Gardener’s account.

To date, his friend has not been located.

During Monday’s sitting, the clerk-of-court informed the court that the case was not ready for trial because several documents were still outstanding. The documents include statements from the bank, the female complainant, and the investigating officer.