By Nagra Plunkett, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE AREA One Police Fraud Squad has launched intensive investigations into the disappearance of nearly $30 million from the Retirement Phase Two Provident Society Fund in St. James.
Police sources yesterday disclosed that the money was withdrawn from a bank account operated by the provident society. The housing development is one of the Government's Operation PRIDE projects.
According to information reaching The Gleaner, the account was opened to collect downpayments from 600 beneficiaries. The project is specifically designed to offer low-cost living accommodations.
ROLE OF THE DEVELOPER
The provident society is the legal entity charged with the responsibility of being the developer under Operation PRIDE (Programme for Resettlement and Integrated Development Enterprise), and works in partnership with the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC), which oversees all PRIDE projects.
In February this year, three persons, including an employee of the NHDC, were arrested in connection with the scam. The three Errol Maxwell, Dazwell Hines and Angella Fairclough, all of St. James addres-ses were slapped with forgery charges. Fairclough, the NHDC employee, a 39-year-old resident of Cornwall Courts, is answering at least 15 counts of obtaining money by forged documents. She has not returned to court since March, after she was granted bail in the sum of $2 million. A bench warrant has since been issued for her arrest.
At the start of the probe earlier this year, investigators uncovered that about $900,000 was defrauded from the society but later revealed that the amount ran into millions.
"We are looking for over 10 more persons, who we believe tendered withdrawal slips and received money from the account. They are not employees of the NHDC, neither are they beneficiaries of the Operation PRIDE project," a police officer told The Gleaner yesterday.
Reports are that a representative from the Provident Society made a complaint to the Area One Police Fraud Squad in February. Following this, "certain plans" were put in place and on February 26, Maxwell, an Orange district resident, was held at the bank when he attempted to make a withdrawal from the account.
Hines, who resides in Green Pond, was nabbed the following day when he also attempted to withdraw money from the said account. Initial investigations led to Fairclough's arrest.
Maxwell and Hines are facing charges of attempting to obtain money by forged documents, while Fairclough was slapped with charges of forgery and obtaining money by forged documents. The police are alleging that Fairclough forged the signatures of the chairman and the treasurer, both of whom have to sign the withdrawal slip in order for it to be honoured by the bank.
The case against the three is set for mention on June 30 in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court.
