Scammer denies household goods con

Cayman Islands courts, Grand Cayman

(CNS): A woman who was convicted in 2015 of stealing $20,000 in a permanent residency scam and is awaiting trail over another massive immigration fraud, in which she is charged with conning her victims out of almost $2 million, pleaded not guilty on Friday to further deception charges. Judith Douglas (52) appeared in Grand Court facing two counts of obtaining property by deception after taking payments from two buyers of around $4,000 for the sale of bedroom furniture and a refrigerator between November 2016 and February of this year. 

Douglas was sentenced to a 2½-year jail term after admitting the status scam, in which she conned work permit holders into believing that the government was engaging in another mass status grant and that she could get them on the list to get permanent residency for a fee of $2,500. Telling victims that government needed the money to plug the deficit, she convinced several people over a period of nine months that the scheme was real.

It is understood that the latest alleged con regarding the household goods reportedly took place while Douglas was in custody serving time for that conviction. Given that Douglas is to go on trial in March next year regarding the $2 million fraud, the prosecutor requested and was granted an adjournment for this latest accusation until after that trial.