MONTEGO BAY, St James — In a case marked by calculated deceit and financial betrayal, 25-year-old Shericka Whyte stood before the St James Parish Court on Wednesday charged with 15 counts of simple larceny and four counts of breaching the Cybercrimes Act.

The court heard that on May 2 the complainant, a co-worker, discovered her bank account had been drained by 15 unauthorised transactions totalling $130,000, all payments made through the PayPal portal to an online store. Investigations quickly pointed to Whyte as the culprit.

When questioned by presiding judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton about how she obtained the complainant’s banking information, Whyte admitted that she accessed the complainant’s locker during her lunch break and photographed the details, which she then used to make the fraudulent purchases. She stated that her intention was to sell the items.

She then told the court, “I never did anything like this before.”

Whyte said financial hardship had driven her actions.

She also claimed that the complainant contacted her via e-mail, urging her to cancel the orders before the police got involved. According to Whyte, she complied, PayPal confirmed that the complainant was refunded and the items in question were never shipped. However, the complainant denied having received any refund.

Judge Fairclough-Hylton challenged Whyte’s defence, stating, “You said you never did anything like that before, but you calculated everything you were going to do.”

Given how the theft severely affected the complainant’s financial stability while the defendant appeared to benefit materially, the judge, highlighting the injustice, addressed the defendant directly:

“So, she must be $130,000 poorer and you must be richer because you are not financially where you want to be,” the judge said.

A social enquiry report has been ordered to guide sentencing, which is scheduled for July 2. Meanwhile, Whyte’s bail was extended.