By Paul Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
ESMIE JONES, operator of the failed Speedy Cash Partner Plan pyramid scheme, pleaded guilty in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday to several counts of fraudulent conversion.
However, Resident Magistrate Paulette Williams told Mrs. Jones she would not be entering her plea until she had received additional legal advice.
Mrs. Jones told the court that she had spoken to a lawyer briefly on Tuesday but had not yet secured one to represent her.
The judge told Mrs. Jones that in the interest of her own safety she would not be granting her bail and ordered that she be fingerprinted and taken to court on April 12.
Mrs. Jones was spirited into the courtroom under heavy police guard. She entered through a back door used by lawyers, judges and court employees. She was dressed in a black print dress and had her head covered with a burgundy coloured bath towel.
Senior police officers cleared the court of all spectators before Mrs. Jones was brought in while other officers used newspapers and other objects to block those on the outside from looking in through the windows.
Mrs. Jones was arrested over the weekend in Windsor, St. Elizabeth, where she was said to have fled after the scheme collapsed and angry depositors had demanded refunds, threatening her in the process.
Last week Wednesday depositors in the scheme descended on the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) after they discovered she had closed her bank account at that institution.
More demonstrations were staged in Sam Sharpe Square after Mrs. Jones failed to pay up the partner money.
Meanwhile, charges against three men who were charged with breaking into Mrs. Jones' home in Farm Heights were dropped after she decided not to proceed with the case. The men, Errol Simpson, Caple Williams and Kelao Che Akwanza Addae, were alleged to have broken into the home at Lot 182 Farm Heights on Saturday night, an alarm was raised and they were held by the police.
