Fraudster guilty of deception

Redemption Sharpes resident Ola Thomas will learn his fate on April 30, after pleading guilty to four counts of deception.{{more}}

Thomas appeared at the Kingstown Magistrates Court on Monday, April 16, charged with obtaining by deception, several electronic items, the property of Missed Call Tech in Kingstown.

He pleaded guilty to deceitfully obtaining a Play Station 3 game console, Pioneer headphones, three Blackberry smartphones, an Acer laptop, a 32 gigabyte memory card, a Television set, a Television stand, a laptop mouse, two Nokia cellular phones, two Ipod cases, two screen protectors, a transformer, a DVD, a Blackberry battery, laptop bags, headphones, between February 18 and April 10, 2012.

On March 2, Thomas again deceitfully obtained a Pentax Digital camera valued at $9,000. He was also charged with dishonestly obtaining one Samsung computer and an external hard drive, both totalling $2,600.

Thomas also pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining one Iphone valued at $3,000 and an Ipad valued at $3,500. All the items were obtained from the electronics store, Missed Call Tech.

SEARCHLIGHT has been informed that Thomas’ scheme involved stealing persons’ credit card numbers and storing them in his mobile phone.

According to the source, Thomas went to Missed Call Tech and made a number of credit card purchases using different names on different occasions.

When the persons received their credit card bills from a local bank, the owners of the cards stated that they had never made any purchases from Missed Call Tech.

The bank is said to have contacted that business place and alerted them to what was going on.

The next time Thomas went to make a purchase, members from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) nabbed him.

Most of the stolen items were recovered.

This is not the first time Thomas has run afoul of the law. In 2006, he was sentenced to 12 months in jail for deception.

Thomas was arrested and charged with stealing two bankbooks belonging to Shemiah Simmons of Glen, impersonating Shemiah Simmons with intent to defraud Allando Richardson and Donna Glasgow, employees at RBTT bank, and making and using four false instruments (withdrawal slips).(KW)