By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A BARTENDER has been given six months to repay the $5,000 he defrauded a local lending institution out of two years ago by using a fake Department of Education employment letter.

Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister ordered yesterday that Frederick Rolle, 25, should repay Easy Terms Limited the $5,000 he swindled it out of by June 4 of next year.

If he doesn’t, Magistrate Armbrister said he would convict Rolle of fraud, fine him $2,500 and send him to prison for one year. If Rolle doesn’t pay the fine, he will serve an additional six months.

Rolle is also ordered to serve 80 hours of community service by June 2020. Failure to do so would result in a $500 fine or six months in prison in default.

Rolle was also put on six months’ probation for uttering the fake employment letter. If he fails to keep the peace and be of good behaviour during that time, he will be fined $500 and sentenced to eight months in prison. Failure to pay that fine would result in an additional four months in prison, Magistrate Armbrister said.

Magistrate Armbrister’s orders came after Rolle, represented by attorney Bjorn Ferguson, admitted to obtaining $5,000 cash from Easy Terms financing by using a Department of Education employment letter he uttered on June 14, 2017.

It also came seven months after he ordered five women and a man to pay back the $30,000 they collectively defrauded Easy Terms Limited out of that same month.

According to the facts, on June 23, 2017, Ruthy Knowles of Easy Terms financing, situated on Davis Street, reported to police that sometime between May and June 2017, Rolle submitted an employment letter from the Department of Education that contained official stamps.

Rolle also brought various documents in support of their application, and consequently received a CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank cheque in his name. However, it was later discovered that the letter he produced was fraudulent.

Fast-forward to Sunday, a day after he was arrested, Rolle told police during his interview that a man named Billy had asked him if he wanted to make some money. Rolle replied in the affirmative, and Billy then instructed him to give him his National Insurance Board card and his passport.

After providing Billy with the documents, Rolle was told he would get a loan he “did not have to pay back”.

On June 14, 2017, Rolle met with Billy at Easy Terms on Davis Street, where he gave Rolle a brown envelope. Rolle then gave that envelope to a female employee, who then gave him a $5,000 cheque.

Rolle and Billy subsequently rode together in a blue, rental vehicle en route to CIBC FirstCaribbean’s Marathon branch, and once there, Rolle cashed the cheque. Rolle kept $2,000 for himself, while Billy kept the remaining $3,000.

In May, Carl Fisher III; Vandissa Rolle; Ericka Gibson; Trene Leadon; Reniqua Bowe; and Melissa Evans were each ordered to pay back the $5,000 they defrauded Easy Terms Limited out of in June 2017.

Failure to do so by today would result in a $2,500 fine along with a one year prison sentence, Magistrate Armbrister ordered at the time. Failure to pay would result in an extra six months in prison.

The six were also ordered to perform a collective 480 hours of community service—80 hours each—at a place to be named by the Department of Rehabilitative Services. Failure to comply with that order would result in a $500 fine, and failure to pay the fine would result in a six month prison sentence.

They were also put on six months’ probation, during which time they must keep the peace and be of good behaviour. A $500 fine along with an eight month custodial sentence is the alternative. If the fine is not paid, four months will be tacked onto that sentence.

At the time, all six had admitted to uttering and consequently being in possession of forged Department of Education employee letters, which they each then used to defraud Easy Terms of $5,000.

Two other women, Shanti Moxey and Shakera Youte, were also charged with the same offences, but the prosecutor, Sergeant Kendrick Bauld, withdrew the charges after receiving letters indicating that their respective debts had been settled.

The two were consequently discharged by the magistrate.

According to the facts of the case read by Sgt Bauld, Easy Payday, a subsidiary of Easy Terms, is a business engaged in providing loans to government employees that are serviced through salary deductions.

He said that sometime between May and June 2017, all eight persons presented employment letters from the Department of Education (DOE), attached with an official stamp, as well as other relevant documents, to Easy Payday for a loan application. As a result, they each ended up receiving First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB) cheques in their respective names in the amount of $5,000.

At some point, Dellareece Symonette, a senior assistant secretary at the DOE, got a call from Ms Knowles over her suspicions that fraudulent activities were taking place at their Thompson Boulevard branch.

Ms Knowles subsequently faxed Ms Symonette the names of the eight persons to determine if they were in fact employed with the Ministry and/or Department of Education. Ms Symonette subsequently made a check and confirmed that Fisher, Rolle, Gibson, Bowe, Evans, Moxey and Youte were not MOE or DOE employees.

Leadon was found to have been a newly applied contract worker, but would not have been eligible for a loan.

Meanwhile, a Haitian man, Sidney Similiean, denied allegations that he uttered a fake NIB card bearing his name and tried to obtain two birth certificates from the Registrar General’s Department bearing the names Theria Similean and Similean Similean on November 29.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes consequently adjourned the matter to January 27 for trial. Bail was denied and he was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim.