JP jailed in $27m property fraud as Clansman trial warning and firearm convictions reported

A justice of the peace has been ordered to serve prison time after admitting guilt in a $27-million real estate fraud matter involving a St. Catherine businesswoman, while separate court and police updates also covered the Clansman gang trial and firearm convictions.

Georgia Messam, 53, who served as a JP for Kingston and St. Andrew and worked as a paralegal clerk in Village Green, St. Ann, was accused of receiving more than $27 million between April 2018 and April 2019 for a property purchase. Prosecutors said the money was to be forwarded to the relevant attorney at her law firm, but was not. A letter on the attorney’s letterhead was then fraudulently sent to the seller’s lawyer, giving an irrevocable professional undertaking that the balance would be paid. The title was transferred before the fraud was uncovered when the seller sought payment.

Messam was arrested on February 8, 2023, after a Specialized Investigation Branch probe, and later charged with fraudulent conversion, unlawfully making available a device or data for an offence, and engaging in a transaction involving criminal property. She first appeared in the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Court on February 16, 2023, pleaded guilty on March 19, 2026, and was sentenced on May 14 to concurrent terms, including two years and six months at hard labour.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Dale Palmer again warned that anyone recording or photographing the 25 accused in the trial of the alleged Tesha Miller faction of the Clansman gang could face contempt proceedings. The warning followed defence complaints that a police officer appeared to record defendants as they were being escorted to court. The trial was adjourned until next Tuesday, when Crown witnesses are expected to continue. The defendants face 16 alleged offences said to span August 2017 to November 2022.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force also said six people received life sentences for gun-related matters in the first quarter of 2026. Police reported 17 people sentenced to more than 250 combined years, 80 people charged, 175 illegal firearms seized, and 595 charges laid under the firearms law. Cases highlighted included Romaine Logue, Ronaldo Forbes, Nigel Bailey, Andre Jennings, Matthew Smith, Ricardo Donahue, Timroy Bingham, Ricardo Kerr and Jamal Trusty, with further April convictions involving Jerome Wilson and Marvin Bailey.