Unsuspecting Bahamians were being hoodwinked into purchasing properties that were not for sale or already sold, which comprised some 33 percent of the overall reported crimes for 2002, it was revealed in the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Annual Report on Tuesday.
At ” The 3rd Annual Meet the Press Briefing and Luncheon” held at Police Headquarters, East Street, Officer in Charge of the Central Detective Unit Superintendent Marvin Dames, revealed that there were 98 matters of Stealing by Reason of Service reported to the police.
He said that three real estate agents were arrested because they were selling homes that they did not own.
And in some cases, they were selling homes to unassuming Bahamians that were already sold.
These individuals accounted for some 66 percent, or 65 of the 98 reported matters of Stealing by Reason of Service.
Four real estate agencies were also closed down for collecting funds and promising lots and houses to their clients, which they did not own, and did not have the right to sell.
“And we are seeing a lot of these unscrupulous agents, unscrupulous car salesmen who are taking advantage of unsuspecting persons, in particular, females, to deprive them of their funds,” he said.
Officer in Charge of the Commercial Crime Division, Assistant Superintendent Drexel Cartwright further noted that some individuals also pretended to be salesmen or real estate agents who swindled buyers out of their funds.
He said that some people who hired persons to purchase vehicles for them abroad, thinking that they would get a better deal, were sometimes robbed by the car salesmen.
He said that victims sometimes waited for up to a year before going to the police for an investigation to be carried out.
The salesmen, said ASP Cartwright, would come up with such excuses as to why the car was not purchased, such as, “It is a very long process for it to get here,’ or ‘Because of 9/11 it is going to take a while.”
All the while, the salesmen would have already spent the funds on their own personal pursuits, he said.
Mr. Cartwright said that although the police work hard to ensure that such white collar criminals are charged, the case hits a sour note when goes to court because there is a long process in the judicial system.
Most of the people who are tricked into these scams he said, are “well established individuals.”
Superintendent Dames also referred to the number of fraud cases before the courts, thanks to the hard work and intelligence operations of police officers.
The category of Fraud by False Pretences accounted for some 21 percent, or 62 of overall reported matters.
The arrest and prosecution of Trinidadian Beverly Jadoo, who was charged for obtaining some $756,000 in wire transfers from two offshore banks was one of the highlights of the police report, said Supt. Dames.
Such crimes are also on the increase he said, because of the new technological age.
The suspect might have had some inside information within a particular bank, he said, or a dormant back account, or may have had an accomplice in the bank.
“She would then send instructions to the bank by way of fax because this is the computer age now,” he said. “She tells them to wire a certain amount of cash to another bank somewhere in the Caribbean. The bank then takes that instruction after receiving the actual instructions and what the suspect would then do is contact the bank which is supposed to receive this cash, and then instruct the bank to send the cash to various accounts to pay credit card bills, drafts to relatives, deposit to other bank accounts and the like.”
Local financial institutions are quite concerned about this kind of criminal activity, and have thus taken measures to become more astute, Supt, Dames said, noting that a well-known insurance executive was found in possession of 116 fraudulent Certificates of Motor Insurance that had been issued to individuals.
In other cases, two Bahamian females defrauded a number of business establishments of over $49,000 with cheques written on a closed account.
Supt. Dames said, “We are working diligently to address issues of this nature and to expose persons who are engaging in these kinds of activities and to bring them to justice as quickly as possible.”
By Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
