Teachers, clerk charged in $23m salary racket

Two teachers and a clerk employed to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information have been charged with multimillion-dollar fraud in relation to a salary racket, the Jamaica Constabulary Force revealed yesterday.

The teachers, Delroy Elliott, 31, and Ruel Young, 35, were both overpaid by $23 million over a 13-month period, a police investigation showed. The clerk, 31-year-old Jermaine Saunders, who made the payments to the teachers, was allegedly given a percentage of the money.

The trio, who turned themselves in to Fraud Squad detectives between May 7 and May 9, are to appear in court on May 28 after being charged with simple larceny and conspiracy to defraud.

Police reports indicate that the overpayments spanned June 2017 and August 2018.