Manager, secretary in controversial $1 million cash transactions case plead guilty

The manager and operator of Drax Hall Auto Brokers, Devon Hayden and his secretary, Andrene Green, pleaded guilty to charges of cash transactions in excess of one million Jamaican dollars on Tuesday, May 17 in the St Ann Parish Court.

The charges had arisen when two customers of Hayden’s business, Gary Jones of Runaway Bay, St Ann and Norman Smith of Kildaire district, Buff Bay, Portland were found with cash receipts showing they each paid over one million dollars in cash for separate car purchases.

Cash receipts were first found at the establishment on a search in November last year.

The search later revealed that Jones paid over one million dollars in cash to purchase a 2009 Toyota Corolla and Smith did the same for his Toyota Axiom.

Hayden, Green and Jones were then charged. Police had later tracked Smith to Portland where they charged him on Monday, January 11, 2016.

In court on Tuesday, chief parish judge Andrea Thomas ruled that Devon Hayden and Andrene Green be fined $150,000 and $70,000 respectively on the first count that involved Gary Jones’ motor vehicle purchase.

Hayden and Green were also fined $70,000 and $30,000 respectively on the second count where Norman Smith bought his motor car.

Under the amended Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), paying or receiving as payment cash of more than one million dollars is a criminal offence.

The cases involving Jones and Green, stemming from the same cash transaction, are to be mentioned later this year.