KINGSTON, JAMAICA (BANK FRAUD) : 26-year-old woman, Jeniqua Johnson, withdraws $1.2m after opening Scotia account with $5,000

BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, May 03, 2016 

AN aspiring nurse who defrauded the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) of $1.2 million via a cheque, after opening an account with only $5,000, is to know her fate on June 30 when she appears in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Withdrawal

The 26-year-old woman, Jeniqua Johnson, had also attempted to obtain over $300,000 after lodging three other cheques to BNS.

Johnson pleaded guilty to three counts of attempting to obtain money by false pretense and a count of obtaining money by false pretense yesterday when she appeared in court. Her bail was subsequently extended by Senior Parish Judge Judith Pusey.

She was, however, warned not to return to court without the money to repay the bank. The court heard that in April of last year, Johnson wrote a cheque for $20,000 to pay Islandwide Builders, but the cheque bounced as there was not enough money in her account to cover the sum.

She also wrote two other cheques on May 19 — one for $300,000 to pay the National Water Commission and another for $19,100, to Bryan’s Studio — which also bounced.

The court also heard that Johnson wrote another cheque for $1.2 million on May 29, which she encashed at a branch of Sagicor Bank.

But Attorney Zephania Forest told the court that Johnson did not benefit from the funds and was acting at the behest of an individual whom she had never met.

He said that Johnson, who was a nursing student at a university in Kingston at the time of the offence, was referred to the individual for a job.

She was successful in getting a job, he said, which required her to collect the names of people who were interested in loans, but the business was shut down after the police got wind of its operations.

Forest said following that, the same individual contacted his client and told her that he would be starting a training school to prepare people to work in a call centre and that she should open a company account.

Johnson then went and opened two accounts — one at BNS and the other at Sagicor Bank. more