From Jamaica Observer

A Jamaican woman has been convicted in the Cayman Islands for her part in a permanent residency scam which involved two other women.

Marcia Hamilton was convicted on six counts of obtaining property by deception, when she appeared in court earlier this week.

Another woman Judith Douglas, pleaded guilty to similar offences.

The third woman, Kathleen Davis, also a Jamaican, fled the country before she could be charged.

According to police reports, Hamilton — who received permanent status in 2003 — denied the charges, claiming she was not part of a conspiracy because she believed the permanent residency offer she assisted with was a legitimate scheme.

However, trial judge, Justic Charles Quin, ruled that Hamilton knew that the people she and her co-accused scammed for US$2,500 each were never going to get permanent residency.

The exact number of victims have not been confirmed but lists of names and documented cash payments found in Hamilton’s car and home suggested that dozens of people could have all paid fees to secure what they all believed would be the right to live and work in the Cayman Islands.

Quin said he found the evidence was overwhelming that Hamilton acted together with the two other women to deliberately defraud their victims.

He described the receipts, ledgers and documentation found in Hamilton’s possession as damning evidence that showed she was, as the crown claimed, “the money lady” in the scheme and that she was not just assisting friends and family to help them get permanent residency.

The judge described Hamilton as an “intelligent and resourceful” woman who ran a business and who was familiar with the immigration system and would have known how the system really works to get residency.

The fraud took place between October 2009 and April 2010.

Hamilton and Douglas, who are out on bail, will be sentenced on February 25.

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/J-can-woman-convicted-in-Cayman-permanent-residency-scam_46884