ST ANN, Jamaica — A teacher who allegedly told a Chinese student she was tutoring to pay her $3.5 million to sit Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams pleaded not guilty when she appeared in the St Ann Parish Court on Friday.

Literature teacher Kimberly Bailey-Allen, a resident of Cambridge in St James, has been charged with obtaining money by false pretences.

It was established in court that the 15-year-old female student knows Bailey-Allen from a private school she attends in Montego Bay and they had a private arrangement for tutoring.

The allegations are that Bailey-Allen informed the student that the funds were required as part of the standard procedure to sit CXC exams. The court was told that between April and July of this year the student took $3.5 million in cash from her parents, without their knowledge, and gave the teacher.

After her parents realised the funds were missing the teenage girl told them she had given it to her teacher as a fee to sit the exam, the court was told.

On Friday the court ruled that, to further aid in the investigation, a statement will be needed from CXC to determine if they have any affiliation with the accused.

Bailey-Allen was offered bail and is to return to court on October 21.

– Akera Davis