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 been given probation and a suspended sentence.

The woman, Danecia Henry, 23, was sentenced in the St James Parish Court last Friday, and, according to the judge, it appears that she can be rehabilitated.

On a previous mention date on November 1, Henry’s crying father asked presiding judge Sasha-Marie Smith-Ashley if she could grant him six months to compensate the complainants. However, the judge told him that time frame was too long and advised him to see what he could do before then.

Both complainants later received full restitution from the father.

A social inquiry report presented at Friday’s hearing indicated that the community spoke well of Henry and that her actions surprised people.

“I am of the view that you are someone who can be rehabilitated…The community speaks well of you and is surprised by your actions because of your quiet nature…They say you only go to work and then home,” Smith-Ashley said.

When passing sentence the judge considered that restitution had been made, Danecia Henry had apologised, and she appeared to be remorseful.

She handed down a two-year probation order with one year of supervision for the six counts of simple larceny and a one-year prison sentence suspended for three years for violating the Cybercrime Act.

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 G-mail 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.