MONTEGO BAY, St James — A woman who was slapped with charges of breaching the Cybercrimes Act and six counts of simple larceny after removing nearly $100,000 from two of her co-workers’ bank accounts without their consent has pleaded guilty.

Danecia Henry made her first appearance in the St James Parish Court on Wednesday to answer the charges. In the first incident, which occurred on October 17, the complainant checked her Scotiabank (BNS) online account and noticed that the balance was lower than expected and there had been several unauthorised transactions.

She then checked her gmail and discovered several messages from the bank recording transactions totalling $80,135.84. The payments were for orders placed on the online shopping platform TEMU.

The complainant visited BNS and filed a report. She was then given a printout of her account and bank personnel guided her through the process of creating a report on the app.

During the process, the complainant remembered that on the date of the transactions she had shared her locker with Henry.

Based on information received from TEMU and the complainant, Henry was identified as a person of interest. The second complainant said that on October 20 she was on a call at work when Henry asked her for a sanitary napkin. The complainant said she handed over her locker key to Henry in order for her to take a sanitary napkin from her handbag, which contained her Sagicor debit card.

Henry returned the complainant’s locker key about two hours later. The complainant took her lunch break around 3:00 pm and went to her locker to retrieve her cellphone. She received two text messages from Sagicor bank, one of which stated that $15,000 was withdrawn from her account at 12:15 pm. The other text message indicated that another transaction had been unsuccessful.

The complainant made a report to Sagicor bank and was given a printout of her account that showed the transaction. Based on information received and documentation presented, 23-year-old Henry was identified as a person of interest on October 26.

On that same day she was escorted to the Area One Fraud Squad office, where she was interviewed and her mobile phone searched with her permission.

Henry’s e-mail was checked and five TEMU confirmations with the last four digits of the first complainant’s BNS debit card were seen as the mode of payment. Regarding the second complainant, Henry said she used and returned her co-worker’s Sagicor debit card. Henry is also reported to have stated that she was able to use the card because she remembered the complainant’s PIN.

Henry was subsequently arrested and charged.

During Wednesday’s hearing, at which she accepted responsibility for her actions, one of the complainants burst into tears and turned to Henry, asking how she could betray her so badly after she had treated her as a sister.

Henry’s father also broke down in tears and asked the judge if she could grant him six months to compensate the complainants.

Smith-Ashley told him that six months was too long and advised him to see what he could do by the next court date, which is November 27, when Henry will be sentenced.

Henry was remanded until that date.