7 Employees from The JDF Coop Credit Union Detained for Fraud: Over J$4m Taken

Reportedly, seven workers employed at the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Cooperative Credit Union Limited were held and charged after they defrauded over $4 million from the organization. The matter was revealed when the employees, three men, and four women, were brought before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

The defendants are Tabinna Layton (St. Catherine) a teller from St. Andrew; Allesha Beckford (St. Catherine) a teller from Waterford; Rondre Getfield (St. Catherine) an administration clerk from Greater Portmore; Ravonne Thomas-Matthews, an information technology analyst from Kingston 5; Romario Anthony Johnston, a member service officer; Teanna Tapper, a teller, from St Andrew; and Hugh Anthony James, a teller from Kingston 2.

All of the workers embroiled in the incident were charged with larceny as a servant and conspiracy to defraud. Furthermore, Getfield, James, Beckford, Johnston, and Thomas- Matthews were also charged with unlawfully making obtainable devices or information for the commission of a crime.

Layton, Johnston, and James were additionally charged with access with intent to commit or facilitate the commission of an offence. A third charge of computer-related fraud was leveled against Johnston, and Tapper was charged with a second offense of forgery and uttering a forged document.

Chester Crooks, Chief Parish Court Judge, presided over the court case which was postponed so that full disclosure could be made to the defence attorneys, and for the clients and their attorneys to have mature dialogues with the goal of restitution in mind.

The fingerprints of all the involved parties were ordered to be taken and they were asked to relinquish their travel documents with the exception of James, who is scheduled to make his second appearance in court on Friday, October 7, 2022, to hand over his certificate of birth.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Johnston is expected to turn up at the Greater Portmore Police Station and was ordered to keep his distance from the credit union. The defendants were all given extended bail and are slated to return to court on Thursday, November 10, 2022.

The seven accused individuals, as alleged by the court, colluded to swindle the credit union out of $4,440,500, between June 6, 2022, and August 23, 2022. It was also alleged that Johnston altered the passwords and emails of 13 customer accounts at the credit union and systematically transferred the available funds to his and his fellow accused accounts in installments.

The other accounts the funds were sent to (then later withdrawn from) belong to Getfield, James, Thomas-Matthews, and Beckford. According to the court, most of the withdrawals were enabled by Layton. Tapper was also accused of falsifying a cash voucher and procuring capital from an account.

Garfield Livingston, a Detective Sergeant from the Fraud Squad, C-TOC, is investigating the case.

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