Scamming papers, banking info found among eggs, sawdust in crocus bag
Published:Monday | February 7, 2022 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE POLICE have arrested a 27-year-old woman for breaching the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) (Special Provisions) Act, following the discovery of banking information and lead sheets at her home in Cambridge, St James, last week.
The woman was arrested and detained in a crackdown on lottery scamming activities and other major crimes in the parish. Her name has been withheld, but detectives have disclosed that she is 27 years old and unemployed of Ducketts Road in the parish.
According to the police, their operation which was carried out about 11 a.m. Thursday, was based on intelligence gathered over a period and the seizure of two illegal firearms from the house of the suspect last March.
“The Lottery Scam Task Force went on an operation in the Cambridge police area and to a district known as Ducketts. There, we conducted a search in a house belonging to the suspect and found eight lead sheets of paper containing names of persons living overseas, along with banking information,” said Detective Inspector Luhas Daniels.
He said these items were discovered after the suspect disguised them in crocus bags containing sawdust and chicken eggs. Investigations are ongoing and a court date is being finalised.
Daniels noted that Cambridge and adjoining areas in St James have morphed into a sort of epicentre for scamming and the police are actively moving to stop the illicit activities through intelligence gathering.
He revealed that Thursday’s raid was one of approximately 12 such operations that the lottery scam task force has conducted since January, which netted five persons who are now before the St James Parish Court.
“We have never stopped; our operation is a continuous one. We will not stop until this illicit trade is diminished,” he told The Gleaner.
When quizzed as to whether children are involved in the illicit lottery scam trade, Daniels noted that while their intelligence is not showing that at this time, it is not impossible.
“It is not impossible, but it has not been brought to the attention of the police. And on a regular basis, the lottery scam task force goes to school to educate the children on the dangers of the trade,” he said.