Police Commissioner concerned about bail granted to alleged lottery scammers

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has raised concern that the courts are granting bail to too many alleged lotto scammers.

Commissioner Ellington announced this morning (May 15) that all of the persons arrested in recent times have been released from custody.

The Commissioner is casting blame particularly on what he describes as weaknesses in the Jamaican laws.

He was speaking at the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica’s President’s Forum on National Security, in Montego Bay St. James.

Since the start of the year, police have seized various properties and arrested several persons in relation to the lottery scam operating mainly in Western Jamaica.

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington disclosed this morning, that virtually all of the accused have been released on bail.

He says that is a major problem for law-enforcers.

To stop the scammers, Commissioner Ellington wants persons accused of the crime to remain in jail, pending the outcome of speedy trials.

That's how the system works in countries like America, that the Commissioner says, are serious about the lottery scam.

That's why the police are going all out to have Jamaicans extradited to those countries, where convictions are easier to secure.

In light of the Commissioner’s pronouncements, it is important to find out why the courts are so willing to offer bail to alleged lotto scammers.

The main reasons, Commissioner Ellington says, are the weaknesses in Jamaican laws, like the Evidence Act.

He has repeated calls for the government to speedily amend the Evidence Act, which would among other things, enable lottery scam victims to give evidence via video links, from their homes overseas.