The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 35-year-old man who went into a local bank to make inquiries about a forged cheque he said a friend had given him to cash was on Friday fined $7,000.

Tyrone Wilson was arrested after he was found with a forged Bahamas Mortgage Corporation cheque in the amount of $73,500 on May 4.

Prosecutors said the fraudulent document bore the name Affordable Trucking.

Wilson owned up to the offence when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.

The court heard the bank manager of BOB’s Shirley Street branch made a complaint with the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit which prompted officers to proceed to the bank branch around 2.30pm that day. When they arrived, they spoke with the manager who told them Wilson had come to the bank to make inquiries about the validity of a $73,500 cheque for a friend. The prosecution said upon closer examination, the cheque was discovered to be fraudulent. As a result, the manager handed the forged document to the officers and pointed out Wilson who was subsequently arrested. When he was questioned in custody, he told officers he got the cheque from a friend who owed him money. He said the man gave him the cheque and told him he would be paid once it was cashed. Wilson also said when he was unsuccessful in cashing the cheque at FirstCaribbean bank, his friend told him to go to BOB where he was arrested.

During the hearing, the accused was represented by attorney David Cash. He told the magistrate his client was a heavy equipment operator who had fallen on hard times after not working for an “extended period of months”. He claimed Wilson’s “mind was drawn” to his friend after he remembered the man owed him money, so when his friend gave him the cheque, he saw it as an opportunity to get paid.

In response, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt said although the facts didn’t excuse the defendant, they did explain how he got himself in such a “precarious condition”. She said given the circumstances a custodial sentence was not warranted and instead fined Wilson $7,000. The defendant was also placed on probation for 18 months. If he fails to comply with the conditions of his release, he could risk spending a year in prison.

On Friday, another man who denied trying to defraud the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation, was on Friday remanded to prison pending a bail hearing next week.

Anwar Stubbs, 29, was accused of possessing and uttering a forged document and attempting to commit fraud by false pretenses on April 29.

It is alleged Stubbs possessed and presented a forged Bank of the Bahamas cheque that was drawn from the account of the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation and made payable to himself in the amount of $80,000.

It is further alleged the accused attempted to obtain the $80,000 from BOB’s Carmichael branch with the fraudulent cheque that same day.

During his hearing before Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt, he denied the allegations. However, before the Crown could make a decision on bail, the prosecution requested more time to consider their position.

As a result, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt deferred the matter of bail to May 10.

Stubbs is also expected to receive his trial date at that time.