A man accused of defrauding several students out of US$15,000 in an overseas job scam is scheduled to continue his bail application in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Thirty-three-year-old Andre Bowen of Port View in Kingston 20 is facing 10 counts of obtaining money by false pretence and fraudulent conversion.
The bail application was suspended on Thursday after the attorney for the accused told the court that he had not received full disclosure in the matter. However, the prosecutor has objected to Bowen’s bail on the grounds that he is flight risk.
The prosecutor informed the magistrate that Bowen fled the island last October after the first report was made to the police and was recently arrested on his return.
Allegations are that, while employed to a legitimate agency that recruited students for work and travel programmes in the United States, Bowen created his own company. It is alleged that Bowen used the company, which was not registered with Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour, to fleece students of US$15,000 which was purported as fees to help them secure jobs overseas.
A report was made to the Fraud Squad of the Counter Terrorism and Organized Crime Investigations Branch (C-TOC) when the students discovered that no jobs were awaiting them.
— Tanesha Mundle
Even students demscamming?kmt