A woman at the centre of an alleged rental scam has seen the case against her expand significantly as the prosecution filed dozens of new charges in the Summary Court on Tuesday, 13 June.
Judith Douglas, 57, of Bodden Town, initially faced five counts of obtaining property by deception. However, an additional 31 charges were filed minutes before today’s hearing began, taking the total to 36.
“The prosecution will be seeking to file a joinder application to have all charges grouped as one matter,” advised prosecutor Kerri-Ann Gillies, who also noted that it was too early to say whether they wanted the matter to be dealt with in the Summary Court or Grand Court.
The charges stem from allegations that Douglas collected cash deposits from multiple people for a rental premises on Diaz Lane, George Town, in February this year. However, those people were unable to move into the apartment or receive a refund.
“Ms Douglas is quite anxious to have the matter resolved one way or another. Unfortunately, there is a minimum amount of time that I will need, as I only received disclosure 15 minutes ago and there are some 1,000 pages to go through,” said attorney Jonathon Hughes who is representing Douglas.
She was initially taken into custody on 5 March after surrendering herself to police. Since then, she has made several court appearances – all by video link, and no bail applications have been made.
When stating that there would be no bail applications during Tuesday’s hearing as well, Hughes explained to the court that at the time of the allegations, Douglas was out on probation from HMP Fairbanks in relation to an unrelated matter. However, the new allegations have resulted in a breach of the terms of that release licence and as such Douglas was taken back into custody.
The case has been adjourned until 27 July, at which time it is expected that Douglas will enter her pleas.
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