Entrepreneur sells land with forged documents

William Lopez

Also in court, a Buttonwood Bay resident was busted after he solicited money from three persons and used the name of the Minster of Works, Anthony Boots Martinez. Forty-three year old William Lopez approached Laura Mora, Steven Flowers and Shannet Williams on separate occasions and showed them documents, claiming that he was selling land for Minister Martinez. Lopez collected one thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars from Mora, seven hundred from Flowers and another five hundred from Williams. But the scam started unraveling when Williams checked in with Lands Department on the status of the property she thought she was buying. The department told her that no such land existed. Williams then went to the Martinez, who told her that Lopez doesn’t work for him and her next stop was the police station. Today Lopez pleaded guilty to three counts of Obtaining Property by Deception and was fined one thousand dollars on each count to be paid by June twenty-seventh. He was also ordered to pay compensation to Williams and Flowers by the end of next month. Meanwhile, Mora was advised to file a civil suit since her loss exceeds a thousand dollars. Magistrate Roberto Ordonez says he spared Lopez prison time because he is first time offender and he showed remorse.