MONTEGO BAY, St James — A man who convinced a bank account holder to hand over his debit card and PIN, then accessed $120,000 from the account, has been remanded in custody after the court was told he was previously convicted for a similar offence.

Stephan Jones is expected to return to court on September 23 to answer to a charge of simple larceny. Angel Gray, who is charged with aiding and abetting simple larceny in the same case, is out on bail.

Both defendants appeared in the St James Parish Court before Judge Kaysha Grant-Pryce last Wednesday. They are represented by attorneys-at-law Donovan Collins and Henry McCurdy, respectively.

The court heard that on July 4, Jones, who was driving a white Toyota Axio motor vehicle, approached the complainant and pleaded with him that he needed his assistance to receive US$4,000 into his [Jones’] account. Jones allegedly told the complainant that he would pay him $100,000 for his help.

The complainant, believing the request was genuine, provided Jones with his debit card and personal identification number (PIN) to access the account.

Between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm that same day, the complainant received four notifications on his cellphone alerting him that his debit card had been used at a gas station for $120,000, and also at three other locations.

During the investigation, surveillance footage relating to the transactions was reviewed. A statement was recorded and a question-and-answer session was conducted. The court was told that the agreement between the two accused was that Gray would run the debit card for $120,000 and she would be paid $5,000. However, when she ran the card, she allegedly kept $20,000 for herself and handed over only $100,000 to Jones.

The two were subsequently arrested and charged.

The revelation, in court, that there are other complainants who allegedly fell victim to the same scam, elicited astonishment from Judge Grant-Pryce. She was amazed that people would hand over their debit cards to strangers who approached them and requested the cards to transfer funds into their accounts.

Collins, who represents Jones, stated that his client denied the allegations, but the court clerk indicated that surveillance footage showed Gray running the card and collecting money.

After the court was told of Jones’ previous conviction for a similar offence, Grant-Pryce then explained to him the circumstances under which bail can be refused and advised that he fell within one of those categories. She said that based on this, she could not grant him bail.