St Catherine court sends Portmore auto seller fraud matter to Restorative Justice

Adrian Cope, a car salesman based in Portmore, faces allegations that he took payments from multiple buyers and failed to hand over the motor vehicles they had ordered. On Tuesday, the St Catherine Parish Court directed the matter into Restorative Justice.

He faces counts of fraudulent conversion, offences under the Consumer Protection Act, and deceptive conduct. The file came before Senior Parish Court Judge Desiree Alleyne, who was told that two of the people who lodged complaints have already been repaid — $400,000 in one case and $300,000 in the other — and that those complaints were concluded at their request.

A third complainant maintains that the $1,035,000 she has received does not settle what she is owed and that Cope still owes her a larger sum. Defence counsel Odane Marston told the court his client’s liability is limited to funds paid into Cope’s account, contending that any further informal money arrangements fall to civil rather than criminal process.

The court referred the proceedings to Restorative Justice, with the parties due back in the St Catherine Parish Court on September 15. Cope remains on bail of $700,000; his bail conditions have been removed.

Prosecutors allege that from June 9, 2020 through December 16, 2025, Cope took more than $3 million from six complainants as deposits or payments for cars. Those buyers say the vehicles never arrived, and after they could not recover the funds on their own they went to the police. Officers from the Portmore Criminal Investigation Branch carried out the probe that resulted in Cope’s arrest and the charges now before the court.