Two Jamaicans Charged For Scamming In Florida

Last November, 24-year-old Dillion Johnson and 26-year-old Neville Taylor went to the US to work as contract servers at the Country Club, Florida. On April 1, their contract was terminated due to COVID-19 and they were unable to return to their country due to closure of Jamaican ports.

On May 5, suspicions were raised by the First Florida Integrity Bank, where they both had accounts that were seeing numerous deposits and outbound transfers to other accounts owned by them.

The bank subsequently informed financial crime bureau detectives who, on probing it was found the deposits came from vulnerable senior citizens, some who suffered from memory loss.

The county sheriff’s office said that these people were asked to send the Jamaicans a check to verify their bank details so they could receive winnings of an enormous lottery they were made to believe they had won.

According to the investigation, Johnson received two checks totaling USD 5500 from a 72-year-old San Francisco woman with long term traumatic memory loss.

In addition, he received a cashier’s check of USD 5000 from an 85-year-old woman from West Virginia on May 4. Taylor received three checks amounting to USD 4200 from a 95-year-old woman from North Carolina who had no recollection of sending any money.

Additionally, Taylor received USD 1200 from an 84-year-old woman from Illinois and USD 4500 from an elderly woman from Texas. Johnson and Taylor have been charged with fraud and are set to appear in court.

One person commented “Make an example out of them. They put a bad name on our country and making it bad for others who would like to go on the work program.” while another said “Know how long I want to go on one of these jobs and can’t get through. And them get the chance and mash it up!!!! A wah duh dem man yah!!!!!!🙄🙄”.