Four men who are accused of living the fine life at the upscale Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston, racking up a whopping US$5,739 (JA$516,510) bill in a single day, after obtaining the credit card information of an American citizen, are to be tried on May 28.
The men, Donovan Daley, Roshan Shaw, Clive Desnoes and David Thomas, are all charged with obtaining credit by fraud after they reportedly checked into four separate rooms in the luxurious hotel.
It is alleged that Shaw was the one who contacted the hotel and reserved the rooms for all four men via email. The credit card information used was said to be that of an American man, Jeffery Mitchell of an Atlanta, Georgia address.
Their stay at the hotel was cut short however, as after a few hours and orders, hotel staff got suspicious over the use of a card by one of the men and alerted the police.
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The lawmen reportedly turned up at the scene, accosted and questioned the four men. A search was also conducted and a number of credit cards, blank credit cards, sheets of paper with names and credit card information and flash drives were alleged to have been found in Thomas' possession
The four appeared in The Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, with all except Shaw being on bail. Shaw's attorney asked for the sum to be reduced from $500,000, and said the accused had been in custody for the last five months. This wish was granted by Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey who lowered it to $200,000 with a surety.
The court was told that certain information was still outstanding as the police were getting information fromMastercard officials, as well as from employees of the hotel.
RM Pusey requested that the case be brought before the case management officer on March 30 and then tried later in May.