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Graduate accused of extortion
Said to have threatened student if he didn't pay
By TANESHA MUNDLE, Observer staff reporter, mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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A graduate of Jamaica College who police said extorted $200,000 from a student at the school was yesterday denied bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.
The court was told that between April 2009 and July 2009, the accused — 19-year-old Delmar Williams — approached the 15-year-old complainant and demanded various sums of money from him on a weekly basis.
It was reported that Williams told the complainant that he would beat him up if he did not get the money and as a result the complainant, who was afraid, withdrew the money from his mother's ScotiaBank card.
The court was also told that on one occasion the accused contacted the complainant and allowed him to speak to another man who requested $25,000 and told him that if he did not pay the money they would attack him at his home.
The complainant later told his parents about the situation. They reported it to the police and the accused was arrested in a sting operation in which he was caught collecting money from the complainant.
However, Williams' attorney Sheldon Codner strongly denied the allegations.
He told Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey that the situation was a case in which the complainant told his client and other students that he could buy video games and cellular phones for them over the Internet. But after collecting their money, he used up the funds and as a result concocted a story because he could not pay back the money.
Codner said his client not only gave the complainant money on several occasions to buy a cellular phone for him, but also loaned him money to pay back other students, whose money he had squandered.
“On the day my client was arrested he was going to collect $15,000 from the complainant who contacted him and told him to come for the money that he owed him,” the attorney said.
The attorney in his application for bail told the court that this was his client’s first offence. However, the magistrate told him that she could not entertain bail as she was concerned about the complainant’s safety.
Williams was then remanded until October 28.
Said to have threatened student if he didn't pay
By TANESHA MUNDLE, Observer staff reporter, mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, October 14, 2010
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
A graduate of Jamaica College who police said extorted $200,000 from a student at the school was yesterday denied bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.
The court was told that between April 2009 and July 2009, the accused — 19-year-old Delmar Williams — approached the 15-year-old complainant and demanded various sums of money from him on a weekly basis.
It was reported that Williams told the complainant that he would beat him up if he did not get the money and as a result the complainant, who was afraid, withdrew the money from his mother's ScotiaBank card.
The court was also told that on one occasion the accused contacted the complainant and allowed him to speak to another man who requested $25,000 and told him that if he did not pay the money they would attack him at his home.
The complainant later told his parents about the situation. They reported it to the police and the accused was arrested in a sting operation in which he was caught collecting money from the complainant.
However, Williams' attorney Sheldon Codner strongly denied the allegations.
He told Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey that the situation was a case in which the complainant told his client and other students that he could buy video games and cellular phones for them over the Internet. But after collecting their money, he used up the funds and as a result concocted a story because he could not pay back the money.
Codner said his client not only gave the complainant money on several occasions to buy a cellular phone for him, but also loaned him money to pay back other students, whose money he had squandered.
“On the day my client was arrested he was going to collect $15,000 from the complainant who contacted him and told him to come for the money that he owed him,” the attorney said.
The attorney in his application for bail told the court that this was his client’s first offence. However, the magistrate told him that she could not entertain bail as she was concerned about the complainant’s safety.
Williams was then remanded until October 28.
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