Travel agent cleared of 14 fraud charges
Cayman 123 Travel owner, Theresa Chin
(CNS): Theresa Chin, the former owner of 123 Travel, has been acquitted of more than a dozen deception offences in relation to her failed business. It took a jury just over a couple of hours to find Chin not guilty on 14 counts of obtaining and attempting to obtain property by deception in connection with flights and holidays she sold to customers but never acquired the tickets. Chin had not denied misusing cash given to her by clients for their travel arrangement, as she moved money around in an effort to keep her business afloat.
The question in this case had always been about whether Chin was dishonest when she took the cash and used another customer’s credit card details that she had retained without permission to pay for tickets or whether her efforts to “rob Peter to pay Paul” were simply an honest struggle to keep the business going and get on top of her debts.
While Chin has not repaid all of the customers who lost out when her business eventually collapsed, the jury’s across the board not guilty verdicts implied they did not believe what she had done was deliberately dishonest.
Speaking to the jury on her behalf last week as the case drew to a close, defence attorney Nick Dixie argued that his client may have been a terrible business woman but it did not make her a con artist or thief, as he pointed out that stupidity was not dishonesty.
He argued her intent had always been to secure the travel arrangements for her customers but a spiraling out of control situation eventually became too much to save, leaving around eleven customers out-of-pocket as they had to pay twice for their tickets. Chin claimed that she had got into financial trouble not least because other people and businesses owed her money, causing a knock on effect.
Its a laywers world and she had a good one
All hail the judicial system
As long as you believe that nothing can be done, nothing will be done. The jury makes a stupid or erroneous decision and this is obvious to judges/lawyers. The judge can reverse the verdict.
The rather belated story in the Compass does include the Judge’s instructions to the jury. Interestingly, it ends with this para:
“Someone who appropriates property belonging to another person without meaning for the other person to lose that property permanently is nevertheless to be regarded as having the intention of permanently depriving the other person of it if his intention is to treat the thing as his own to dispose of regardless of the other person’s rights, the judge instructed.”
hmnn…
Was she not “disposing [of her client’s money and using her client’s card] regardless of [their] rights”? Seems that way to me — the case in a nutshell.
He cannot but the DPP can appeal it to a higher court – MAYBE!
It is just unsecured long term borrowing. What your problem is?
What you have with this verdict is the declaration that you can steal with impunity as simply write it off as stupidity. I do not believe she didn’t know she was doing wrong.
The only thing left for her is to run for legislative assembly.
Stupid is as stupid does…….thief, liar, cheat. Just one more in a long line of guilty people who got off cause they are stupid. It’s a wonder there aren’t more unemployed around here.
Maybe it’s something in the drinking water……
With corruption so rife and seen as a means for local voters to make money off their passports, justice cannot be served by Cayman juries.
Seriously, this shows incompetence in the justice system. It is a cry for justice. You mean to tell me that all of these innocent hardworking folks were defrauded by this fraudulent woman and she got away with justice????? This proves to show us that the legal system isn’t working for us, it is against us. Caymanian people, it is high time that you all come together and stand up for your rights!
I am very surprise she was not found guilty, Maybe some of the people she took cash from cash take her to court personally for a refund. She was in court for fraud and get off so that’s a totally different case.
Stress and more stress. no justice in Cayman Islands Court. What else in NEW. What gets me is that 99.95 of all posters on these online news sites in The Cayman Islands don’t use their names they use that BIG A. What a joke, who are you afraid off. Besides travel agency’s are a dying breed. Why pay someone to book your vacation a service fee when you can all go online yourselves. BOOK FOR FREE.
Yet another disheartening case study in why you don’t want to be at the mercy of the Cayman Courts – anything can and does happen – with injustice often winning out.
wow! shocking at any level. What is so worrying for those of you that think this isn’t a problem, the only lesson she learned is that you can steal from others to save your own dying business. She will go on to set up another business but hopefully with the new changes to the T&B law they will not issue her a licence (please someone take note!!) Gosh just awful.
Guys,
We have to be mindful that sometimes the news does not report everything. I’ve seen several cases where critical details are left out of news reports that ultimately lead to an acquittal. Granted, I know of several cases that we simply botched by a poor case being brought by the prosecution or jury being overly lenient, inter alia. Some cases I know resulted in bad judgments against people who demonstrated not only guilt but lack of remorse. This was not one of those cases.
In this case, I can tell you that all the important details were not shared sufficiently by the media – in particular the final parts of the case leading up to the jury decision. What was shared in mass was the incriminating circumstances which led a lot of us, even me at one point, to write her off. But the proof is in the pudding, and only the edge of the pudding was shared with most.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Unfortunately that is incorrect in this case. Nice of you to take up for her but as someone who has been in the industry since 1986, she knew exactly what she was doing. It is not a new thing. If you own an agency, you know what is allowed and what is not allowed. Agents are bonded and should be trusted. She should have never been allowed to obtain her IATA license in the first instance.
Just ask a PROFESSIONAL Travel Agent. There are 2 shops on the island that have been in business for decades. That is who you should trust.
I don’t fully agree with you as I lean a bit more to the assertion that it was her poor management rather than blatant fraud, but I respect your position on the matter, particularly coming from your industry experience.
So using another person credit card without permission is poor management????? Well if it is, please give me your credit card details and let me use at my will, and when u called the police I would just tell them it is poor management…. all you are joke. I own and run a small for the past 30 years and I have my share of hard times, that’s why when u in business and when you are doing well, you must put profit a side for hard times to weather through.
I have gone 3 months without collecting a single payment sometimes, but that the nature of doing business. You need to have a strong credit line to sustain your business.
In this case they use the money for they own personal gain. She tried to open a beAuty salon and fail, she paid for parties for her family and friends in Jamaica and in cayman. I know this first hand cause I was there partying with them……
Poor management? Poor management might have caused her to have to resort to stealing but stealing is not poor management. Stealing is stealing.
Obviously you were not in COURT, I WAS. Obviously You did not LOOSE ANY MONEY. I DID. I could have easily bought my tickets online as i was visiting the country. I wanted to SUPPORT a SMALL LOCAL BUSINESS. I will never again. This DECISION shows INCOMPETENCE.
CNS: Please can you stop using upper case for random words. It’s very annoying and will in future be deleted.
This decision makes a mockery out of the law and sets a very dangerous precedent. Why should the people who paid be now out of pocket and she has no obligation to refund their money.
Hi Ron the Observer, can you share with us the details that would make us more sympathetic to this case?
I do wonder if we got a balanced view — for example, I thought what might have helped would have been the judge’s summing up of the case and the instructions to the jury. I suspect that that is the key to understanding what happened here.
But so far I have not heard anyone mention anything in mitigation — what about it Ron? What do you know that would help us with this vexing case?
oh 3wow…….cleared to do stupidity at others expense again….not dishonesty? yet with other peoples money. who are stressed out and probably lost?
The owner and manager of XXXX got away for the same thing. I was a victim of XXXXX purchased a ticket and the day of my trip the agent at the airport told me that my ticket was not paid. It has become common for travel agencies to steal people’s cash and nothing is done about it. Cayman justice is BIG joke!!!
Look here Don Cayman. You are the foofoo that went to a dinky agency. Go online if you like but most people that use an agency use one that has been in business and has never stolen peoples money.
It is NOT common for travel agencies to steal people’s cash. If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.
Pay attention or you will be scammed again my love.
100% of my early trips to Cuba could not be purchased online – every one of them involved theft in some degree from either the Cayman travel agency, the Cuban hotel or bus drivers, or the political officer “Igor” assigned to incoming Cayman passengers at the time. None of it was refunded. Shakedown after shakedown. Done with that place, and Cayman agencies that orchestrated these shakedowns.
You say Cayman agencies, plural, and I call BS on you for that because I was one of them!! And I can swear on a stack of your bibles that you were never scammed from my agency nor from either of the 2 others that are selling them. Again, if you go to rinky dink agencies, dah wah ya get!
YOU, kind sir are another one that will get the shakedown again and again.
I personally lost almost almost $5000. USD to this SCAM TRAVEL AGENCY and IRRESPONSIBLE BUSINESS OWNER. The juries decision is a JOKE PERIOD and IRRESPONSIBLE. That is like me saying “I DID NOT INTEND TO COMMIT A CRIME, SO I SHOULD GET OFF OF ALL CHARGES.” This sets a PRECEDENT for everyone using their CRIMINAL ACTIONS and walking away FREE. Just imagine I paid this money and have not gotten either my TICKETS or MONEY. If that is not THEFT, I have to restudy the English language. Even after this lady was charged she closed the Agency temporarily then reopened with all new SIGNAGE. I wonder who paid for that. My question has been answered all us VICTIMS have been charged and she walks away laughing.
This is obviously a ridiculous decision, however we must appreciate that the jury must make a decision based on the evidence presented in court. Has anyone considered that maybe the prosecution bottled their case? Are there performance reviews? Based on what is shared in the news, this case would seem to be a slam dunk.
I am not a lawyer, but the performance of the prosecution must be considered.
her business is likely dead anyway, you’d be crazy to use her again.
And yet they will use her service. She has at least 10 new clients that believe she is honest.
Seee wha a tell you Leroy Obeah work!!!
How is this possible. I pay my money to go on vacation during the holidays to see my family. Thinking i have a ticket, I go to the airport packed and ready to go. Get to the airport and I am told there is no ticket for me???? And she goes I will sort it out?? How can she be not guilty??? SHE TOOK MY MONEY FOR THE PURCHASE OF A TICKET AND USED IT FOR SOMETHING ELSE!!! FRAUD IS FRAUD, THEFT IS THEFT!!! This is crazy. I never got my money back nor did i get a ticket
So just last week (20 April) we learned via another media of another case that did not fare so well:
“… had pleaded not guilty to five charges of theft from ….by writing checks to herself totalling $12,500.
The magistrate found her guilty of all charges. This week, defense attorney Jonathon Hughes spoke in mitigation, telling the court Martinez had medical bills of about $18,000, because of her own health issues and those of her son, who has sickle cell disease.
At the time of the offenses, her financial problems were leading to foreclosure on her home and causing a great deal of distress, he said.”
The defense attorney went on to say that she was extremely remorseful, was willing to pay back, and had her desperately sick son who was entirely dependent on her, not to mention her own illness.
The judge reduced her jail time of one year by six months, and substituted six months community service.
The only difference in this case was that this woman’s troubles are much more sympathetic — the amount of funds involved are likely to be similar, and the act of taking cash to use for your own personal needs is exactly the same as writing a check to yourself — same difference.
This woman can thank her lucky stars — it can be nothing less than dishonesty to scheme to take people’s money, even if you plan to pay it back.
And in the case of the use of the credit card, I simply don’t believe that was a mistake — the details you have to provide for a credit card that you don’t have on hand to swipe must have made it clear who the card belonged to.
And how was she going to pay that back? Must have been hoping that the owner of the card would not have checked his account.
It is terribly unfair that a sick woman with a sick dependent child must go to jail while an able-bodied woman trying to save a failing business should walk.
And what is this about “honesty” excusing a violation of faith and trust in the expropriation of people’s money for your own use? A lot of people who are in court for the first time ever, are basically honest people, who get in a jam and cannot resist temptation in the face of grave personal crises.
But you have to face the consequences of the crime.
And what of the the pain, distress of and utter inconvenience to the victims, some of whom had never been paid back???
And what about the position of trust in an OWNER of a business? This was not a line employee.
This case shouts something “rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Get back to your racist Facebook page and leave us alone.
yes, 8:47 am, I feel for the other heart-rending case. It was very painful to read about the pain of that mother, and it was so sad that she had to go to jail, especially as her son is so ill and is so dependent on her.
I don’t wish anyone ill, but I can see nothing to make me feel sorry for Chin. She was all about herself and saving her failing business.
Cut your losses, close shop, and get out in the workforce and earn your money. That is what most of us are doing, including all those from whom you took money without their permission and used it, and in some cases did not repay.
No matter how guilty you might be always plead not guilty in Cayman. Good chance you’ll win.
This is a very disturbing decision. Basically a Ponzi Scheme can be undertaken in Cayman and you can get away with it with no consequences. I am really beginning to wonder about the future of this place. Really hope the Crown appeals this decision in the interest of all Caymanians and basic public policy.
WTF! Although I must say having been a part of the jury selection in the past it is actually not that surprising. It might not be the jury but more so the quality of the prosecution’s case. I once saw the defense attorney reach across the isle to assist the prosecution with the list of names of the PROSECUTION’s own witnesses!!!!! I was appalled and unfortunately that was the standard I was exposed to throughout that entire process. Which leads me to another mystery what exactly is the Attorney General’s job and where the hell is he? The amount of questionable sentencing and shocking acquittals raises a major red flag of significant deficiencies in our legal system.
There are simple solutions to solve this problem: 1) Purchase your ticket online either directly through the airline, or one of the large travel sights such as Travelocity or Trip Advisor. 2) Ask a trusted friend to do this (or show you how) online if you are unfamiliar. 3) Go to the Airport to purchase your ticket.
Easy if you have a credit or debit card, or the funds to pay for it all in one go, but I would guess some of her customers were paying in installments.
You all people has to respect the courts and jury decision and stop being what you always has been as a matter of fact it’s a lot of fake news, go to court and hear the true story,the lawyer did his job and the jury could never be corrupted, the crown has the say in who sits on the panel!!
How da r…s can you use someones credit card without their permission and that not be considered dishonesty????
Her heart is clean and her hands are pure. Nuff said.
8:08 am: Clean heart? That planned getting her hands on people’s money by selling them that they had to pay cash when she knew that was not true?
Clean hands that kept a record of people’s credit card details so she could use them later?
Whoosh…….
We will leave that to god…..
courts and juries in cayman are a waste of time
Stupity is not dishonesty… the jury showed stupity and the defendant showed dishonesty. You cannot take money from a customer for the intent of purchasing air travel for that customer and use it for someone else without permission. There has to be accountability when you go into business and handle other peoples money.
Accountability is not in the Cayman Courts’ dictionary.
Jury trial.
Unbelievable! The simple act of retaining someone’s credit card info and using it to fund your own business expenses = fraud. That is not even considering disregarding her deception by taking other customers’ money and providing them nothing in return. Her motives are irrelevant, this is fraud plain and simple. This blows my mind.
From a public policy point of view, this decision should be appealed. I would hate for this to set a precedent that in those instances where I call in my credit card on island (for food delivery for example) that the business keeps my details and potentially use it to save their failing business. There is a commercial risk here!
It probably already has set a precedent. … the 2 before her didnt intend to steal either so she thought she would give the excuse a try. She knew exactly what she was doing. When you sell a person a ticket and then void it out, keeping the money. That is intended fraud and misrepresentation. you intentionally had to void/cancel it and use the money for the next person. When it came time to buy the ticket that you should have bought in the first place, you don’t have the funds or the space is sold out. she was definitely dishonest. Honest agencies are guided by rules and regulations. She struck out there 3 times and cant get a license anymore. And dont forget, she didnt even have a Cayman business license to be doing business.
Our jury pool seems to be as thick as they come, and to think these same people can cast votes in our Elections…..Time to open up jury duty to Permanent Residents. The recent results of many cases where a Cayman jury found the defendant not guilty for offences that they are clearly guilty of says that our jury pool is corrupted. Everyone knows everyone.
What an utter disgrace. Bet she is laughing her ass off right now whilst her business partner is picking up the pieces and in debt because of her thievery.
So it wasn’t dishonest to tell people that they had to pay cash so that she could get it to back up her business? Further, that is premeditation. She planned the misappropriation of people’s money for her own use. Usually in criminal cases that is what proves guilt.
That shows a devious mind — and a lot of nerve!
Do you not watch American TV — can’t think of numerous high profile cases where the accused was as guilty as sin but got off? Juries are juries, whether in Cayman or in US or wherever. You never know what sways them.
So better not to start condemning a whole race.
Judge “how do you pleas, guilty or not guilty”, Defendant, “I plead stupid, your honour”
Jury duty is a citizens obligation. If PR holders are given this citizens burden they should have the right to vote.
Cayman juries are family. Think about how many things your mother let you get away with growing up…now think about how much you are willing to let your mother get away with…a cosa nostra dynamic that is alien to most.
Unbelievable. Maybe we can ship in a jury from overseas in the future . Islands too small for homegrown jury’s . She must be laughing her ass off right now , I doubt the same could be said for the people she robbed and has not paid back . Is it too late for her to run for government this time round ? She would fit in well .
Can the prosecution appeal or would that be double jeopardy?
If I were one of the victims I’d be considering a civil suit.
I see a number of persons noting on this site that they have lost significant amounts of money. Recommend they check with a lawyer and see if they can sue and get her to pay court costs.
This was the sort of finagling of people’s money that landed the late Desmond Seales in jail. He was a company manager and applied some of the proceeds from his property management business — not his money either — to try to save his television business.
Fortune was not so kind to him.
What was it about this case that was so different? The fact that she was inevitably discovered earlier given the nature of the transaction? What if she had been able to hide some of this misappropriation of funds — what would that have led to?
It was not as if everyone got their money back, either — according to this and previous reports, all customers were not paid back.
IN any case, restitution does not absolve someone of guilt.
What about the violation of trust — when you hand over your money in exchange for services or products you are trusting that the contract will be fulfilled. How could we possibly allow that violation to go without some sort of sanction — not even community service?
Seems sort of weird to me.
Cayman juries are a joke. When are we going to expand the pool to allow all residents to sit on them?
Careful, 6:06 pm, you are right on the threshold of racial discrimination and xenophobia. It doesn’t take much to bring out the race snobbery, does it.
Definition of xenophobia. : fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. It is surely the opposite of xenophobia if someone is asking for a foreigner’s help?
Silly, 9:21 am — the suggestion is that Caymanians are incapable so you have to bring in outsiders. that is xenophobia and rank racism.
I’ve never stated nor thought that Caymanians are incapable of anything.. The fact remains that when there is a pool of roughly 23,000 people over 18 (21,226 registered to vote) with 10% ineligible due to prior convictions, you are left with 20,700 people who could serve on a jury.. The system will work it so that everyone will be selected for the panel at some stage so few get called more than twice and on an island that is 75.68 square miles it goes without saying that the degrees of separation from any accused will be tiny so it is very common to have people on the jury who know the accused (even indirectly) thus very hard to not be biased one way or another (or genuinely afraid)?
The problem lies with juries only being pulled from the voters roll.
Anyone who has gone through general registry eg: births and a myriad of other things can be called for jury duty. So all the people who don’t register to vote can be called for jury duty, if the court system followed the law.
So 2 pm, the courts do a good job of ensuring that the connections between people are taken account of in selecting jurors. Even small towns in other countries do mange for the most part. Let’s face it, your racism is showing and you are now trying to cover it up.
Seems that they are
Is that the jury pool or the gene pool? Either way, I agree.
When the country of your birth allows it. For the life of me, I cannot understand all the hate for Caymanian people by people who choose to live in Cayman. What a bunch of hateful people you all are. I agree that the judicial system in Cayman is a total disgrace but fyi the system is run by non-Caymanians.
Using someone else’s credit card number to pay your bills is not dishonest? Oh, I forgot. The Bush precedent. Only in Cayman.
Don’t look like she was starving.
The jury clearly don’t understand what dishonesty is. When I am shuffling my own pay cheque around and trying to decide whom to pay, that is not dishonest. When I as customer pay you to purchase a flight from here to Jamaica and you as the travel agent take my money and pay another bill AND do not purchase my ticket, that is dishonest. I have paid you for a good or service that I did not receive.
I think the jury was sympathetic because her business was failing and she was desperately trying to keep her business afloat but you don’t do that with other people’s money and deny them what they paid for.
I think Theresa is a good person but what she did was dishonest. She might have had every intention or hopefully, honouring all her customers travel plans but in principle is what she did any different than a Ponzi scheme? People take money from new investors to pay interest to old investors, it all hinges on new investors coming on board.
How did she allow her business to get to the point of solely relying on the next customer through the door to keep the lights on?
Sadly she is not the only one. All these so-called entrepreneurs that have sprung up since the hurricane, they take your money and use it another job while your job is waiting to be funded by the next customer.
Cayman needs a Business Bureau. What is the criteria for obtaining a trade and business license? Apparently anyone can get one and there is no one to hold them accountable.
You are right, 5:49 pm, it sounds just like a Ponzi scheme. People have been almost crucified for Ponzi schemes.
And I just don’t see how it could have been a “mistake” to use one person’s card rather than another — in this case she did not actually have the card to swipe it, the data, including the name and address of the person would have had to be entered — and possibly also the secret number at the back. How could that be a “mistake”?
Cayman juries. There is nothing like them.
Moral – stupidity isn’t a criminal offence? The harsh reality here is that these islands have a complete lack of regulation when it comes to travel agents. The money should have been held in escrow until the promised travel arrangements were completed not used to prop up a bankrupt business.
ONLY in a BANANA REPUBLIC!!!!
You people allow your brethren to rape and pillage and you turn around and blame expats on all your woes!! LMFAO!!!!!!
You CANNOT make this up. This is hilarious. I should start my own embezzling company.
Someone should have had a reputable Travel Agent in your prosecution!!
hold on, 5:30 pm, I do not condone what this woman has done, but please do not go at this wholesale generalization of “you people”, allowing “your brethren to rape and pillage”. Come on — can you be so simpleminded and so incapable of harnessing argument to support your point?
This happens in every country my friend, even yours.
Go back to your perfect country you racist piece of excrement. Because surely your people are not stupid and immoral like us corrupt inbred Caymanians right?
No village in England or small town in Canada or the US could ever have the same issue of a limited jury pool could it?
There have never been issues of jury nullification in places like LA (OJ) or the Southern US (pre civil rights KKK) or New York (Eric Garner) have there?
Because in other places, run by educated people of European descent these things don’t happen right? Because us monkeys in the banana republics just can’t do anything up to your level, of course we can’t! Being inferior and all that.
So why did you came here? If things are so much better run in your hometown?
I will tell you why. Because you wanted to Lord it over someone and get all the benefits you’d never get back home – that’s why. Because you’re inferior, racist trash who couldn’t make the cut in your home country.
Thought you’d be a big fish in our small pond and rake in the tax free bucks in our little gold mine of a banana Republic eh? All while sneering at those of us who are from this place and whose ancestors built it for the likes of you to come and rape and pillage our heritage.
They say the freaks come out at night but the bigots come out at all hours anonymously on CNS.
So let me tell you what the Trump and Brexit voters told immigrants in their lands (probably one of which you hail from): GTFOH.
OJ was innocent, don’t drag him in to this.
8:27 am — lol. Gave me my best belly laugh for today! But maybe the is what you intended!
‘… Bigots come out at all hours anonymously on CNS’….You hit the nail on the head with THAT ONE, my friend. And a few of em have no qualms about forwarding what you had to say on… Couple instigators be coming on here for sure!
No village in England or Canada would be called upon to make up a complete jury…don’t you get it ? You can be called to jury service miles from where you live and trial can be miles from where you live to remove the doubt of the jury knowing the defendant, for exactly this reason.
Hey Buddy or Gal at 5:30pm, do you have access to Netflix ?
If you do, then I suggest that you take a look at the documentary called “The Killing$ of Tony Blair”. An absolutely great watch especially for anyone who is against greed and corruption.
By the way, the Cayman Islands is not a Banana Republic but if it was, then how the hell did you end up on our shores ? Don’t tell me that your country’s ship sank and you then came ashore floating on a piece of driftwood.
This is absolutely ridiculous. What is happening in this country. How can she be not guilty? She stole from Peter to pay Paul. Aaah boy.
This is why you need judges not jurors, they know nothing about the law.
All about the mens rea.
FFS.
WTF
Well that’s fantastic