‘Romantic bandit’ spared jail time

Jul 29, 2022 News

…as victim accepts repayment, drops charges

Kaieteur News – A 25-year-old woman who pretended to be an Englishman on Facebook to rob another of $85,000 was on Wednesday spared from being jailed after the victim accepted repayment and dropped the charge against her.

Spared from being jailed, Susan Richards.

The person behind the fake Englishman’ Facebook profile was identified as Susan Richards of Lot 4 Go Slowe Avenue, North East La Penitence, Georgetown and according to investigations conducted by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) she was part of a Romance Scheme” that scammed a woman of $85,000.

Richards was charged with conspiracy to defraud and was placed before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. She did not have a lawyer at the time and had initially pleaded not guilty to the offence. The magistrate had ordered that she be remanded to prison and return to court on August 3, 2022.

However, Richards obtained legal representation and the matter was recalled. She was represented by Attorney-at-law, Eusi Anderson and a bail application was made. Anderson told the court that his client Richards was pregnant and an environment behind bars would not be healthy for her condition. Anderson argued that Richards is not a flight-risk and included that she was very cooperative with investigators during the probe. At the end, the magistrate dismissed the case after the victim agreed to accept compensation from Richards.

Kaieteur News understands that Richards decided the repay the victim the $85,000 that she was robbed of. The victim accepted the repayment and took the stand swearing that she will not give any evidence against Richards and the matter was dropped. According to reports, Richards is being accused of posing as a man from England called Alex who befriended a woman looking for love and ended up robbing her of $85,000. SOCU learnt that Richards convinced the victim that he had bought her some expensive gifts from overseas and had shipped to Georgetown. The victim believed “fake Alex” and followed his instruction to transfer cash to Richards’ to clear the package.

She reportedly transferred the money to Richards via Western Union and Alex disappeared from Facebook and never made contact with her again. The package with the expensive overseas never arrived too and when the victim realised she was scammed, a report was made and SOCU launched an investigation. SOCU’s investigations led them to arrest Richards. It was later recommended that she be charged with conspiracy to defraud.

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