More trouble coming for serial con artist
Published:Wednesday | June 8, 2022 | 12:11 AM
A serial con artist who is currently awaiting sentencing in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on numerous fraud charges is now facing the possibility of being slapped with an additional charge of being a habitual offender and investigation from the Asset Recovery Agency.
Chief Parish Judge Chester Crooks delayed Tuesday’s sentencing for the confessed trickster, Renford Soares, after his records showed that he had 51 convictions in the Parish Court. The judge instructed that the director of public prosecutions be contacted regarding laying that charge against the 44-year-old.
He also asked that the agency be called in to seek to recover any ill-gotten gains that Soares may have amassed.
The ex-convict, who conned several car buyers out of more than $15 million, had admitted to swindling $1.1 million from a complainant and had pleaded guilty to obtaining money by false pretence before Crooks.
He had collected the money to purchase two motor cars but never delivered the vehicles or returned the complainant’s money.
However, when Soares appeared on Tuesday, the judge, after seeing his records, postponed his sentencing to June 21.
Soares is also to return to court on Thursday for sentencing before Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Montaque in respect of the bulk of the cases.
The court had heard that Soares had posed as an employee of the Jamaica Customs Agency and Kingston Wharves in many of the instances and had convinced the complainants that he could secure cars for them at a discount.
In one of the cases in which he had pleaded guilty to larceny by trick, he collected $2.7 from a complainant after convincing him that he could assist in the importation of a Toyota Hiace motor van.
The court heard that between 2017 and 2021, multiple complainants handed monies to Soares to purchase motor vehicles. However, he failed to deliver on his promises and did not return any of the complainant’s monies.
Parish Judge Cole-Montaque had demanded that Soares make restitution, but his lawyer, Orville Morgan, had insisted that his client was not in a position to make any repayments.