Credit card fraud accused out on bail

A LAVENTILLE man charged with ten counts of credit card fraud was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $170,000 when he made a second appearance before Magistrate Ejenny Espinet at the Port-of-Spain First Magistrates’ Court.  Richard Beckles of East Dry River, Upper Laventille, had been jointly charged with Augusta Castillo with defrauding several branches of RBTT and the UWI branch of Republic Bank of $31,647.26, by making unauthorised credit card purchases. They were also charged with the possession of three counterfeit foreign credit cards for the purpose of trafficking.  The cards were issued in the names Angel Thomkins and Dean Best.  Castillo had also been charged with three separate counts of credit card fraud.

The charges were laid on Saturday by Acting Cpl Brian Peters of the Fraud Squad. The offences allegedly occurred on February 3 and 6 at various business places in North and South Trinidad. The two had appeared before Espinet on Monday, when Castillo had been granted bail in the sum of $180,000. Beckles had been remanded into custody pending tracing. Results of the tracing revealed that he had recently returned to Trinidad and had no previous convictions nor pending matters. Castillo, who said she had no idea how the system worked, inquired about the status of her personal belongings that had been confiscated when she had been arrested. The items, she said, included a purse containing money and a sick leave document, a pair of glasses and a cell phone. Police prosecutor Sgt Claudette Bynoe informed Espinet that the items would have been kept at the San Fernando Police Station, since that was where they had been detained following their arrest.

Castillo said that since she and Beckles had been held at the security booth at the Gulf City Mall, they had not been allowed to inform anyone that they had been arrested and charged. When asked by Espinet about legal counsel, Castillo said she only knew one attorney but did not know how to contact him. Attorney Winston Benn, who was present in court for another matter, was asked by Espinet to represent the duo “just for today” and the matter was stood down while he conferred with them. The two will re-appear at the St Vincent Street court on February 20 for the Port-of-Spain matters and at the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court for the South matters.