Fraud Squad cracks bank card racket

Officers of the Fraud Squad may have cracked a major ABM fraud ring with the arrests of three men last week. They were all held stealing bank cards and tendering false cheques.  Appearing before Magistrate Ejenny Espinet in the Port-of-Spain First Court yesterday were Kelvin Snaggs, Chetleigh Iton and Dereck Maloney. They were held by officers of the Fraud Squad on separate offences.

According to the charge, sometime between March 10 and 11 in Sangre Grande, Snaggs stole a Republic Bank Onecard valued $25. Snaggs pleaded not guilty to the charge. Iton, of Flagstaff Hill Residences, faced three charges. The first charge stated that on February 17 at Valpark, Iton went to Alternate Agencies Ltd, where he purchased several electronic items with the use of a fraudulently obtained RBTT Linx card. The items purchased were estimated at $1,000. Another charge read that on February 2 in Felicity, Chaguanas, Iton tendered a false FCB cheque to David Jubar for the purchase of a Pirogue and a Yahama engine.

The cheque was written for $65,000. Both charges were laid indictably and the accused was not called upon to plead. However, Iton pleaded not guilty to his third charge, which stated that sometime between March 6 and March 11 in  Princes Town, Iton stole a Republic Bank Onecard valued $25. Newsday understands that Iton was recently deported from Canada after he was jailed in that country for a series of narcotics offences. The three accused were all remanded in custody pending the outcome of tracings requested by the magistrate. WPC Smith and PC Kistow charged the men, who will reappear in court today.