A 46-year-old man who pleaded not guilty to obtaining $1,600,000 by False Pretence on Wednesday before a Scarborough Magistrate was granted $120,000 bail with a surety.
Avril Davis, a farmer, businessman and sanitation worker, of Belmont Farm Road, Mason Hall, Tobago, was also prohibited from leaving the country by Senior Magistrate Christine Charles.
Davis was also ordered to report to his local police once per week until the next scheduled hearing on February 7th, 2024.
The accused was arrested on September 19th, 2023, by a team of detectives attached to the Tobago Fraud Squad Office, who were following leads into a March 17th, 2023 police report in which a woman told police that she paid a man $1,600,000, during the period June 2015 to August 2017.
She told detectives that she made the payments to the suspect after she was allegedly made to believe that he was authorised to offer for sale to her a two-storey house situated at Mason Hall, Tobago.
When the woman attempted to occupy the property, however, she was unable to do so and was informed that it was mortgaged to a credit union.
The woman then attempted to secure a refund from the suspect but it proved futile.
She reported the matter to the police and following enquiries led by WPC Bunbury, the accused was charged with the offence.
The Tobago Fraud Squad Office, the first of its kind on the island and in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s (TTPS) history, was launched on March 28th, 2023 by Assistant Commissioner of Police, White Collar Crime Division, Wendell Lucas, as part of the TTPS’ vision to reduce delays and provide more resources for the reporting and investigating of fraudulent activities in the Tobago Division.
The Tobago Fraud Squad Office can be contacted via email at [email protected] or via telephone at 612-2470 Ext 14139.