DWAYNE McLEOD, Staff Reporter

A British woman who allegedly used fictitious credit cards to pay for her accommodations at several hotels in Portland and St Ann is to appear in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court tomorrow.

The woman was slapped with several counts of fraud by investigators from the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) on Monday afternoon following investigations into the credit card racket which is said to have involved about US$6,000 (over J$500,000).

Allegations are that two months ago, a woman booked into a number of hotels in the parishes over a three-week period. She spent at least two days at each hotel, and the cost of the accommodations was reportedly paid for by credit cards.

Each hotel would later discover that the credit cards used to make payments were fictitious.

The police were alerted and the OCID called in to conduct investigations. THE STAR was told that investigations led detectives to a St Andrew location where the accused woman was arrested. She was later questioned and formal charges laid against her.

One investigator told THE STAR that when questioned she could give no reason as to why she used the fake cards at the hotels.

"We suspect there is something more to this case. Either that, or she just wanted to relax a little too much," a detective constable from the OCID told THE STAR.

In recent months, the police have stepped up their investigations into fake credit/debit cards scams and have made several arrests.

Equipment also seized by the police include embossing machines used for imprinting card numbers, identification card makers, laptops and desktop computers.

Additionally, card reader/writers used for encoding card information on magnetic strips, skimming devices used for fraudulently capturing unsuspecting cardholders' information, sheets of Visa holograms used as security features on cards and several pages of card numbers and personal details of local and international cardholders have also been seized.