Drug addict to spend nine months in jail after tricking people out of money

A 62-year old-painter who scammed three people out of money to fund his cocaine habit will spend the next nine months in Dodds prison.

Ricardo Cortez Browne of Coral Land, Haggatt Hall, St Michael pleaded guilty to stealing $100 from Adrian Ramsay on October 12, 2023; $50 and three fish cutters valued at $9 belonging to Wayne Stoute between September 1 and 30, 2023; and $150 belonging to Sharon Daniels on September 28, 2023.

Appearing before Magistrate Bernadeth John in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, he apologised for the incidents and begged the court for help to get treatment.

“I have tried very hard to get off drugs as much as I can. I have tried on my own and I need help,” Browne said.

Noting that he had already received nine months of treatment at Verdun House in 2019, John asked Browne about his relapse.

“I had a job, lost the job, then my father and mother died and I started back using cocaine,” he said, before throwing himself at the court’s mercy.

Presenting the facts, Constable Troy Tudor said Browne pretended to be speaking on his cell phone to the owner of a bar he had entered and told Ramsay that the owner had directed him to give him [Browne] $100, which he did. In the second matter, Browne ordered three ‘bread and twos’ and three hamburgers from an establishment and told the complainant that he had US currency. After being given the equivalent amount in local currency, Browne said he was going to his car to get the US dollars but never returned. He took the items with him.

In the third matter, he pretended to be having a cellphone conversation with the mother of a small business owner in the city. He told Daniels that her mother wanted him to give her some American currency and to give him $150 and he would go to his car and return with the US. When the complainant failed to reach her mother by phone, she gave Browne the money and he absconded with the money.