The police have recovered nine motorcars they believe were stolen by operators of a major, illegal car dealership, involving a number of prominent businessmen.

“What we have recovered is evidence of a major criminal enterprise which is supported by a group of people. The investigation is still at a delicate stage, so we cannot release their names,” The Sunday Gleaner quoted Assistant Commissioner Denver as saying.

Based on the progress of the investigation, ACP Frater believes his team of investigators is “pretty close to the real thing.”

In the meantime, head of the Flying Squad Unit at the CIB Headquarters in downtown Kingston, Deputy Superintendent Cornwall ‘Bigga’ Ford, said the vehicles, which value over $5 million, were recovered over the past week in the Corporate Area and Montego Bay, St James.

No price gouging allowed

PM Portia Simpson Miller

Having extended the duty-free importation of cement from three months to a year, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has quickly sounded a warning against price gouging by distributors who might want to cash in on the market shortage.

“I will be keeping a close watch to see that price benefits are passed on to consumers,” said Simpson Miller.

This move, Simpson Miller hopes, will keep the price of a bag of cement in line with the average $450, industry sources say it now costs.

Her warning was issued last week at a 10th anniversary dinner hosted by Arc Systems Limited, a one time cement importer, owned by Opposition senator Norman Horne.

A day earlier, Simpson Miller had announced an extension of the 15 per cent duty on cement to ease a shortage created after the sole manufacturer Carib Cement, admitted in February to the delivery of 500 tonnes of substandard product to the construction industry in February.

Portmore hospital plans take shape for January 2007

Residents of Portmore were told last week that the dream of having a hospital in the municipality would soon become a reality as ground would be broken in January 2007.

According to the Gleaner, some 50 residents attending a meeting at the municipal council building were told that the hospital would be built at a cost of approximately US$40 million on a 50-acre property in Southborough, Central Portmore.

According to Stacey Turwilger, director from the Cayjam Development Company, which is undertaking the project, it will be a state-of-the-art facility with approximately 120 beds. Surgical, paediatric, ear, nose and throat, neurological, cardiology, oncology, plastic and cosmetic surgery, and general health services would be offered.

Those who questioned the cost were told that the developers, having completed the feasibility studies, would be in close dialogue with insurance providers to make the cost for treatment as low as possible. They were told that the nurse-patient ratio would be one to four, and in the case of the intensive care unit, there would be one nurse to every two patients.

Disaster funds are adequate

Dean Peart

Less than two weeks before the start of what meteorologists forecast to be a busy hurricane season on 1 June, disaster management officials say adequate resources are in place to cope with any eventuality.

The Gleaner reported that Local Government and Environment Minister Dean Peart said his ministry is 85 per cent ready to tackle possible disasters. He points to drain-cleaning exercises taking place across the country, as well as the training of parish managers and mayors to deal with emergencies arising from natural disasters.

The Environment Minister discloses that $50 million has been allocated to the disaster fund to deal with pending catastrophes. This is in addition to $22 million that stood in the fund up to January this year. This is a vast improvement over what has been allocated to the fund in the past.

Last year, Dr Barbara Carby, Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), disclosed that Government had not allocated money to the fund on a timely basis. She said since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, when the fund was created, money was only put in it once.
But Minister Peart says the fund is not critical, stating that money for disaster management is usually claimed from the Ministry of Finance. “We usually spend what we have first and then claim it back from the ministry,” The Gleaner quoted the Minister.

White-collar criminals rake in millions from sophisticated scams

White-collar criminals raked in more than $1.2 billion over the past six years, using methods that are increasingly more sophisticated and, in some cases, executed by organised networks of swindlers.

The Sunday Observer reported that the Police Fraud Squad does a good job of bringing confidence tricksters to book, the cops admit that at times the con artists are so ubiquitous that detectives tracking them feel almost overwhelmed.

“Just about everybody - the common man who works on the construction site, the person who sits in his lofty office, both government employees and private sector employees - do it,” head of the Fraud Squad Deputy Superintendent Fitz Bailey told the Sunday Observer.

“It’s really widespread. It goes beyond the social divide, really.” The term white-collar criminal is often reserved for offenders who extract money from unsuspecting victims via non-violent means.