A serial con-woman at the centre of a rental scam that tricked more than two dozen people out of nearly $70,000 has entered guilty pleas, claiming she took the money to satisfy an apparent gambling addiction.
Appearing before the Grand Court on Friday, 25 Aug., Judith Douglas, 57, of Bodden Town, entered guilty pleas to 26 of 36 charges of obtaining property by deception.
For the remaining 10 counts, Douglas entered partial guilty pleas to six charges and four not guilty pleas.
In total, Douglas admitted to stealing $69,790, as part of a plea deal with the prosecution.
“The prosecution is content with the guilty pleas that have been entered by the defendant,” said prosecutor Kerri-Ann Gillies.
In the cases of partial guilty pleas, the Crown noted, that partial refunds were made and where not guilty pleas were entered, either a full refund had been given or the complainant in the matter did not want to proceed.
The charges stem from a series of scams initiated by Douglas between December 2022 and March 2023, during which she collected cash deposits from her unsuspecting victims, with the promise that the money would be used as a security deposit and/or for the first month’s rent for a premises on Diaz Lane in George Town.
It was later discovered that although Douglas, through her family, had connections to the property she did not have any authority to lease the unit.
In the plea deal between Douglas and the prosecution, which the Compass has seen, the con-woman attempted to explain the circumstances behind the incidents. Prosecutors have stressed that while they accepted the pleas, they did not accept Douglas’ version of events.
Douglas claimed that she had initially rented out the apartment in good faith to a prospective tenant, but the tenant that was occupying the unit had not moved out as expected.
“I was unable to return the deposit to the prospective tenant, as I had already spent it feeding a pernicious gambling addiction,” stated Douglas as the basis for her guilty pleas.
She continued, “In order to pay back the prospective tenants, I agreed to rent the property to further new tenants, in the hope that I could recover my gambling losses and pay everyone back. Unfortunately, this started a vicious cycle of taking from Peter to pay Paul.”
According to her comments in her basis of plea, Douglas continued gambling with the hopes that her “fortunes would change, and everyone could be paid back”.
Although the prosecution has accepted the guilty pleas, they have remained hesitant to accept Douglas’s apparent gambling addiction as the cause of the problem.
Her attorney, Jonathon Hughes, told the court that his client made the admissions during a police interview, and that there were supporting WhatsApp messages on her phone, which was surrendered to police, that proved her addiction.
In March when the scam came to light, Douglas turned herself in, and has since been in custody.
The mention date to set a sentencing hearing has been scheduled for 20 Oct. Ahead of her sentencing, a psychological report has been ordered, specifically to address her gambling addiction.
- This article has been amended to more accurately reflect the prosecutor’s position with respect to the basis of plea.
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