CRUZ BAY — A man who allegedly gave construction workers on St. John worthless paychecks in October was arrested by police today, authorities said.
Jerome Joseph, 46, of Estate Pastory, was arrested about 7 a.m. today by detectives from the Economic Crimes Unit on a warrant for six counts each of drawing and delivering worthless checks and obtaining money by false pretense, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
On October 7, 2019, six men who were employees of Stronghouse Construction, LLC, a business owned by Joseph, filed a police report in reference to receiving worthless checks, according to the VIPD.
The men indicated that they performed construction work for Joseph during the month of August 2019, police said. The workers said that they received their paychecks and that they were postdated for October 3, 2019.
The men indicated on October 2, 2019, Joseph notified them not to cash their checks, since he had no money to pay them and he did not know when he would be able to pay them.
On November 8, 2019 Joseph allegedly admitted to police detectives that when he wrote the checks, he knew he did not have enough money in his bank accounts to cover them, according to the VIPD.
Bail for Joseph was set at $25,000. Unable to post bail, he was remanded to the custody of the Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections (BOC) pending an advice -of-rights hearing.