By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
AN ex-convict who pocketed nearly $2,000 from two women without completing the transactions they paid him for was yesterday ordered to reimburse them to avoid spending another three years behind bars.
Christopher Strachan appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes after he was charged with two counts of stealing by reason of service.
The prosecution said the accused stole $800 in cash from a woman in May 2020, after she gave him the funds as a down payment for a vehicle that she never obtained.
Strachan is also accused of dishonestly receiving $1,000 from another woman in April 2019, which he had access to by reason of service. During his hearing, he pleaded guilty to both counts.
The court was told that the first complainant responded to an online advertisement Strachan had posted for motor vehicles. When she told him she was interested in purchasing a Jeep, they arranged for him to visit her house to pick up her $800 deposit. The prosecution said after the woman paid Strachan, he began to evade her and dodged all her attempts to get an update on the vehicle or to receive her money back.
After she realised she had been scammed, the woman filed an official complaint with police. Strachan was arrested a short time later. When he was questioned he denied all the allegations. The court was told that officers then conducted a confrontation with the accused and the complainant and both parties maintained their position.
According to the prosecution, Strachan had spent time on remand after he was convicted of a similar offence a few years ago.
After listening to the prosecution’s facts, Magistrate Forbes accepted Strachan’s guilty pleas and ordered him to reimburse the two women he had scammed.
He told the accused that as he has a history of dishonest transactions, if he did not pay the money that same day, he would be sentenced to three years in prison.
Magistrate Forbes said the court wanted to make it “abundantly clear” that his actions would not be tolerated.
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