19 TIMES A CONVICT Judge denies fraud accused bail
Ajudge yesterday labelled former marketing employee of the Jamaica Football Federation Garth Savoury as a white-collar criminal, after lamenting on his 19 convictions for similar offences.
Savoury, 31, was scolded yesterday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court by Parish Judge Chester Crooks.
He is charged, along with 27-year-old Ramone Gordon, for uttering forged documents and forgery at the Spanish Embassy.
Crooks told the attorney representing the men: “White-collar crime is more sinister. Persons who are hurt are usually poor. Not even a year and he is held at another embassy,” he said. “I am not minded to give him bail, he has 19 convictions for similar offences.
Both men are to return to court on March 9.
Crooks said Savoury has been fined, given community service, and even a suspended sentence.
“He is serving a sentence and not even a year he is doing the same thing,” Crooks said.
The criminal records for Gordon were also requested by the court.
Savoury and Gordon, both of Hill Road in Norbrook, were arrested by members of the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch.
They were formally charged on Monday, January 22.
Reports are that at about 10 a.m. on January 19, both men submitted applications and documents for visas at the embassy.
However, subsequent checks made by the embassy revealed that the documents were forged.
Savoury and Gordon were arrested and charged in 2016 for forging the signature of then National Security Minister Peter Bunting.
They reportedly wrote letters using Bunting’s signature to obtain emergency birth certificates and other documents from the Registrar General’s Department (RGD).
An investigation was launched and Savoury was arrested in a sting operation, after he reportedly collected the birth certificates from the RGD.