FORD GUILTY
Judge rejects medical doctor’s defence against fraud charges
AJUDGE yesterday rejected a claim by well-known medical doctor Jephthah Ford that he offered a police investigator millions of dollars to release two Surinamese men and the $55 million they were held with because he was trying to help root out corruption in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
Instead, Parish Judge Simone Wolfe Reece scolded Ford, saying he “sought to intercept and get in the middle” of the process to have the men placed before the court and a determination made as to whether the cash was criminal property.
“This plan by Dr Ford, I disbelieve,” Wolfe Reece declared before finding Ford guilty on two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.
“He sought to say to the police, ‘do not put the men before the court and return the money’ without any determination whether this money was criminal property,” she added.
The two Surinamese men were held with cash totalling US$533,886, or approximately J$55 million, as well as $1.3 million in Jamaican currency, during a traffic stop near Half-Way Tree in St Andrew on April 7, 2014.
A week later, according to police Sergeant Franklyn
McLaren, who was based at the Financial Investigations Division, they were charged with possession of stolen property and conspiracy to possess criminal property and were booked to appear before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on April 15.
But during the trial, which began last year, prosecutor Joel Brown, acting assistant director of public prosecutions, led evidence that the popular medical doctor contacted McLaren and requested a meeting.