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Woman before court for misappropriating friend’s $5M Superbet jackpot
Kaieteur News – A 57-year-old businesswoman is currently before the court for misappropriating her friend’s $5M Superbet Jackpot.
The defendant, Wendy Callender, a resident of Lot 1743 Tuschen New Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo, was charged last Friday with larceny by bailee – which simply means that she was solely entrusted with money to carry out a specific task but fraudulently converted the cash to her own benefit.
Charged for misappropriating her friend’s Superbet Jackpot, Wendy Callender
She made her appearance at the Wales Magistrate’s Court on Friday before Magistrate, Faith McGusty, and pleaded not guilty to the offence which alleges that she fraudulently converted her friend, Devin John’s Superbet Jackpot winnings to her own use.
The Magistrate granted her $100,000 bail and she is expected to make her next court appearance on October 10, 2021.
According to the facts of the matter, John, 36, is accusing Callender, who runs a Superbet Franchise at Tuschen, of betraying his trust by stealing his money.
John claimed that he had played the Superbet Jackpot at Callender’s business place and had won over $5M on September 9, last. He showed his ticket to the woman, and fearful that he might misplace it, he decided to leave it with her that day.
The plan was that she would assist him the following day to cash the ticket at the Superbet’s Head Office in Kingston, Georgetown.
Things went according to plan and Callender and her son accompanied him in a taxi to transact the business.
The taxi driver reportedly helped him to cash the ticket. After receiving the money, John alleged that he gave the taxi driver $21,000 for his assistance. John told investigators that he also gave Callender and her son $100,000 and $500,000 for their help too.
The winner of the Superbet Jackpot, Devin John
According to John, he then headed to a store where he bought himself a cellular phone, a 32-inch smart TV and a small music player which totalled $140,000.
They then travelled to Parika where his intention was to see if he could put the remainder of the cash into a bank account. However, this was not possible since he did not have an ID card.
He claimed that Callender had offered to put it in her account but he did not agree to that. He, however, trusted her to keep the cash as he wanted use the money to complete his house.
Two days later, John related, he visited the woman’s home with the taxi driver but she could not be found. Still not bothered, he decided to obtain an estimate for his home. He then made contact with woman who showed up some time after. However, when it was time to pay the contractors to do the job, Callender did not have the cash.
When questioned further about the money, John said that she began making excuses that it was spent to purchase things for him. He claimed that when he asked for the receipts she could not produce them either.
As a result, John was forced to report the matter to the police. Investigators turned up at the woman’s home and, according to reports, all they found was $1M stashed in a safe.
That sum was lodged at the Leonora Police Station and Callender was arrested.
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