( left - right )GRANT and RAMSAY-NELSON
THE FAKE cop saga that has baffled the police force for several weeks took a bizarre turn Monday when one of the scam artists reportedly called up Assistant Commissioner of Police, Novelette Grant, and spoke openly of her illegal operations.
"She said she read the story in the newspaper (The Gleaner, June 24) and said she was sorry and that she was walking away from it," ACP Grant told The Gleaner yesterday. "But if she really was the person I certainly didn't get a sense of remorse from her."
ACP Grant said her conversation with the supposed phony cop was a fairly lengthy one in which the woman told her that she was part of a 30-member network that has been fleecing persons of money and other possessions for some time now.
The criminals, she was informed, are operating out of Kingston.
ACP Grant did not disclose if the police traced the number from which the person called but said she heard enough to consider the woman and her accomplices to be dangerous.
"It's an extremely serious matter ... she said she had contacts in the two (major) cellular companies (Cable and Wireless and Digicel) and within the Jamaica Constabulary Force," said ACP Grant. "She could be giving me a six for a nine but as a police officer I must take it seriously."
ACP Grant says she has had discussions with senior members of the JCF on the possibility of an insider working with the criminals. She did not say if investigations into such a breach will be launched.
THE SCAM
At the June 23 Editors' Forum at The Gleaner offices, ACP Grant revealed that a woman posing as a JCF officer had been calling up unsuspecting persons and soliciting financial and other favours from them. The woman has reportedly been impersonating ACP Grant, Superintendent Ionie Ramsay-Nelson, head of the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) and Deputy Superintendent Hyacinth Wallace.
In addition to calling police stations, businesses and private residences, the criminals have also convinced persons that they have ties to the immigration and passport services and can acquire important documents for a price.
Last week, ACP Grant said a man had lost his motor vehicle after being contacted, and conned, by the woman. Yesterday, ACP Grant said the car was recovered at a garage in Ocho Rios.
