Email

Print

Last night we told you about bogus BTL checques that were in circulation. So far, at least 31 of them have been detected and they are all Atlantic Bank checques which appear to have been paid out by btl to private individuals and made out in the amount of $500. A fair number of them, it turns out were cashed as third party checks at Public’s Supermarket on the Northern Highway at its opening this weekend. And while the full extent of that scam is not known at this time a BTL spokesperson told us this evening that company representatives met with the bank and report that the counterfeit checque situation is under control. BTL has now implemented stricter controls moving forward.

And now it seems, your water company BWSL will have to do the same. They’ve discovered that someone has also been cleverly counterfeiting their checks. Jacqueline Godwin found out more.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The total amount of bogus cheques may not have amounted to much, a total of $4,043.78 but how it was pulled off has left executives of Belize Water Services Limited scratching their heads. Seven of the eight fraudulent cheques bear the name of one Kenneth Jones. He used a Social Security card number, 000381307 as proof of identity. The eight cheques were believed to have been cashed by a third party. The transactions were done between August twenty first and thirty first.

According to BWSL Public Relations Officer Haydon Brown in his 7 years with the company, it is first time a crime like this one has been committed. Equally troubling is that BWSL says there is the possibility that there may be more fraudulent cheques in circulation.

Hayden Brown, PR Manager – BWSL
“Well the thing about is with these, this is an individual. We are looking at the check series and so far we have some numbers that are missing. It has started with 7912 and it has gone up to 7923 so far. We don’t know. That is what we have.”

At first glance, the cheques appear to be in order but a closer inspection reveals that the fraudulent cheques are physically smaller than the authentic eight. The bogus checks also carry a square security feature that is usually found on the back of US cheques. The back of the official BWSL cheques don’t carry any markings. One such cheque bearing number 7913 has appeared at least five times at different places across the country. The cheques have been made out in varying amounts between four hundred and five hundred dollars.

The company’s internal audit manager, Norman Augustine Jr. says they first became aware of the problem on Monday when a bank contacted them.

Norman Augustine, Internal Audit Manager – BWSL
“Atlantic Bank called to inform us about these checks yesterday morning and in fact it was brought to their attention because a number of the checks had the same number which is 7913. Thereafter we looked at the matter, we went over to the bank to actually view the copy of this check to see if they are genuine, brought it to our CFO’s attention as well as the CEO and upon further investigation we realized that it did not fall within the sequence that we are currently using and for the month in question. And two, if you look closely at all these checks the signatures, they are identical. There is no difference whatsoever so it is a duplicated copies that have been made.”

It is not certain if the name Kenneth Jones points to the person behind the fraud or if his name was simply used along with a Social Cecurity card in his name that was presented as proof of identification.

Hayden Brown,
“Well there are some things, I know that our internal auditor will continue to have meetings with the police to continue to pursue whoever it is. One thing we know there is a Kenneth Jones with a legitimate number, Social Security number, and so how that pens out in terms of the actual person, you know how these things go Jackie, we could lose our ID and somebody uses it. I know the Social Security IDs now are a little bit more difficult to take off somebody’s picture etc. but you never know, technology; things happen.”

In fact BWSL says does not even know who Kenneth Jones is.

Norman Augustine,
“Jackie our research into all payments that have been made from our accounts shows clearly that we have not made a single payment to any Kenneth Jones in our history of the data that we have here at the office. We have never made a payment to Kenneth Jones.”

According to the internal auditor there are a number of ways someone could have gotten their hands on an authentic cheque and then made false copies of it.

Norman Augustine,
“Jackie that is the name on the check and we have yet to work along with the police for them to identify indeed that it is the said person. How it is that they have pulled off that fraud, if you look at the check they do look genuine and only the police can assist us in identifying exactly what type of technology they have been using in order to make such authentic looking fraudulent checks.

One of the thing is that we make payments to all vendors, all employees. We also do to customers and we have a huge database of customers so we may do refunds or we may do in some cases security deposit refund for people who might just want to move away to the States. So BWSL checks are all over the country, all over the place.”

The case is also being investigated to see if it was an inside job. Business owners and the general public are advised to be vigilant when accepting BWSL cheques.

Hayden Brown,
“Before accepting or cashing any BWSL “checks” to ensure that IDs and things like that are checked out and so they are cautioned to ensure they check on anything, if someone presents an ID these things are cross referenced properly and if any doubt still lingers that they can get in touch with us at BWSL headquarters right here and get in touch with our accounts department which will then legitimize anything as it relates to checks that are issued from our company.”