HUA Yuan Chun, managing director of Cosco Shanghai, a Chinese construction contracting company which employs workers on the Palmyra hotel project in Montego Bay, was yesterday arrested by the Montego Bay police and charged with the illegal extraction of electricity.

Cosco Shanghai is not affiliated to the Palmyra.
Hua's arrest followed investigations by the Jamaica Public Service Company into an alleged illegal connection to a facility operated by the company to house Chinese workers they employ in construction work on the hotel site.

He was given $100,000 bail by the Montego Bay police and is to appear in court on April 16.

It was alleged yesterday that the illegal connection to the JPS grid provided electricity for the workers' accommodation as well as an industrial kitchen.

The luxury beachfront residential community, the Palmyra Resort and Spa Development at Rose Hall in Montego Bay, had upgraded its 16-acre development into a condo hotel. The adjustments on the project resulted in the completion of the first phase being pushed back from December 2006 to late 2008.