MOCA charges senior manager, co-conspirator at Manchester Parish Council with fraud

Deputy Superintendent of Road and Works for the Manchester Parish Council, 31-year-old Sanja Elliott and 27-year-old carpenter, Dwayne Sibblies, both of Manchester addresses were today charged by detectives from MOCA.

Both were charged with Conspiracy to Defraud, Obtaining Money by False Pretense and Forgery.  They will be taken before the Half Way Tree Court tomorrow, Thursday June 30, 2016.

Both men were arrested during Friday’s fraud and anti-corruption operation in central Jamaica by three government entities. The pre-dawn activities were undertaken by the Office of the Contractor General (OCG), Financial Investigation Division (FID) and the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) as a result of an ongoing investigation which unearthed a grand conspiracy and fraud being perpetrated by Elliott and other senior employees of the Manchester Parish Council and their associates. 

They are accused of using their positions to misappropriate funds from the Parish Council for their own use.  The police say the investigation has revealed that the group corruptly benefited from of millions of dollars.                                          

 “As I have mentioned earlier this investigation is still at an early stage and although two individuals have now been charged, the probe has been widened with a view of determining the full extent of the fraud. In light of this we will continue with our partners to pursue the evidence where ever it leads,” MOCA’s Director of Investigations, Senior Superintendent of Police Cleon March stated,

Meanwhile the Deputy Director General of MOCA, Assistant Commissioner of Police Selvin Hay, would like to reassure the public, that the actions of the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency and its partners are in no way influenced by politics but, solely as a result of ongoing painstaking investigations that have led us to launch a series of search and seizure operations.

 “Throughout the operations MOCA and its partners have been diligent in approach, decisive in action and professional in conduct. We hold true to our mantra that no one is above the law,” Hay stated.