Loan seeker held with fake job letter

A Corporate Area woman allegedly paid $70,000 for a fake job letter in order to obtain a car loan from one of the island's commercial banks.

Tanylee Willis and her co-accused Rashane Palmer are charged with conspiracy to defraud, forgery, uttering forged documents, obtaining money by means of forged documents and attempting to obtain credit by fraud. It is alleged that Willis applied to the bank for a motor vehicle loan for an undetermined sum of money. In support of the application, she presented a job letter from a funeral home. The banker processing the loan conducted a verification exercise, which revealed that the job letter was forged and that Willis was never employed by the funeral home. The loan was not disbursed. Under caution, Willis in May indicated that she paid Palmer $70,000 to obtain the job letter.

When the matter was mentioned before parish judge Venise Blackstock-Murray in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday, attorney-at-law Sanjay Smith representing Willis, and Donna Rufus, lawyer for Palmer, requested an adjournment in the matter to facilitate discussions with their clients.

The request was granted and the matter was set for mention on September 29. A fingerprint order was also made for both accused.

- T.T.