BVI News

Visitor fined $4K after refusing to pay bill at local hotel

Jones

A female visitor who refused to pay her near-$2,000 bill at a hotel on Anegada — claiming she was unhappy with her stay — has been fined.

Thirty-nine-year-old United States native, Katherine Jones, was fined after pleading guilty to two counts of obtaining services by deception. She answered to the charge when she appeared before Magistrate Ayanna Baptiste-DaBreo on Thursday.

Jones was fined a total of $4,000. Magistrate Baptiste-DaBreo ordered the visitor to pay the sum immediately or serve four months at Her Majesty’s Prison in Balsam Ghut.

Leading up to the sentence, her attorney Valerie Stephens-Gordon urged the court to temper justice with mercy, as her client had some ‘mental issues’. The attorney, therefore, urged the court to consider her client’s medical condition.

Stephens-Gordon argued that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating ones and implored the court to caution, reprimand and discharge her client as she had already served close to three weeks on remand.

What the court heard happened

The court heard that on January 14, Jones came to the territory without a fixed address and took a ferry to Anegada that same day. When she arrived on Anegada, she checked in to the hotel and presented her credit card to pay for her stay.

The court heard that she paid for expenses incurred from January 14 to 18. She then remained at the hotel until January 24 and racked up a food and drink bill of approximately $628. She incurred a further $1,128 for accommodation. The woman, however, refused to pay.

The hotel then sought police intervention but Jones still refused to settle her bill, the court heard.

She was eventually arrested. In a subsequent police interview, Jones reportedly said: “I wasn’t having a proper stay.”

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38 Comments

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  1. lol says:

    Cracked Corn

    Like 18
    Dislike 2
  2. Hmmmm says:

    “The court heard that on January 14, Jones came to the territory without a fixed address and took a ferry to Anegada that same day.”

    …..HOW?????

    Like 33
  3. I could tell ya says:

    ????‍♂️ she didn’t enjoy the stay but waited until checkout to say something

    Like 32
  4. mental my A** says:

    why them could always get to use the mental card, but the book is still thrown at us when we do.

    mental privilege up the wahoo….

    Like 16
    Dislike 1
  5. Albion says:

    Sounds like a good deal – you don’t pay your bill, then you get free accommodation at Balsam Ghut!

    Like 27
  6. visitor says:

    My mind wasn’t right either, but you have to pay your bill

  7. Hmmm says:

    This is the best piece of news I have read in a long time. Some of these people they come they stay they get treated to the best.

    Yet they write bad reviews and some refuse to pay so for peace many hotels gave big discounts.

    But kudos to the arresting officer and the hotel. This is a precedent we need officers like those working especially in the tourist districts in Tortola.

    Some of them just dont have money to travel and come up with all type of tricks.

    Like 24
    Dislike 2
  8. OZYMANDIAS says:

    Umm Amerikkka or EUROPE can you please keep your crazy whites. We have our own crazy locals to deal with. Thanks in advance.

    Like 17
    Dislike 26
  9. Jane says:

    White privilege in effect right there. A POC would never go to a foreign country without their accommodation booked for at least the first part of their trip, or check into a hotel and refuse to pay the bill. Mental issues? Oh please. As a whitey myself, honestly “these” people really deserve to spend some time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure AND pay a fine….

    Like 12
    Dislike 16
  10. Dash and dine says:

    Old Pirates yes They Rob I.

    Like 14
  11. Longshanks says:

    Lots of racist generalisations below the line today.

    Thanks BVI News for not focussing on colour in the article itself.

    Like 11
  12. island man says:

    if she was from a Caribbean island the response all over would have been ‘deport her’, ‘send her home’
    but she white so the posters lenient. what a mentality the race card always play

    Like 14
    Dislike 17
  13. Privilege says:

    One of us do such stupid sh!+ like that in America, police probably would have shot us and claim they feared for their life.

    Like 11
    Dislike 10
  14. America says:

    Girl you know you don’t do that. You can’t do that. You stayed there, you still have to pay the bill. You order a meal,you eat the meal, then you complain about the meal was not good. You still have to pay for the meal.contrary to what you all think about America,everyone is not grimy like that. She deserved to be fined.

  15. Well sah says:

    Anonymous………. defend your cuz. Cat got your tongue?

  16. Observant says:

    Island Man you could not have said it better.

    Like 1
    Dislike 5
  17. Unfair says:

    When people come from ‘down island’ they have to ensure that they have an address and contact name but she just waltzed in at free will. If that’s not discrimination at its height I don’t know what else is. There are a lot of US kids working here illegally but because color and nationality no immigration officer ever raids. Sad !!

    Like 3
    Dislike 4
    • Unfair? says:

      A lot? Really? I doubt it.

      However, if you care to go to the US, Canada, UK, Europe and tally all the folk working there illegally and doing all kinds of illegal scams most will have brown/black skin. Hundreds of thousands of em.

      And don’t forget BVI islanders have the right to go and live and work in the UK and anywhere in the EU but this is not reciprocated. Is this fair?

      Stop the whining… people might hear and wake up and smell the coffee.

      Like 6
      Dislike 2
  18. SMH says:

    No fixed address?! Let one of our Caribbean brothers/sisters did tht
    .they would have been on the next plane out of the territory. Fair, must be fair!!

    Like 4
    Dislike 3
  19. Hmmm says:

    Who robbing who?

    $2000 for a week? That sounds like daylight robbery to me.

    I can get two weeks all-inclusive in a 5 star resort the DR including flights for this. And the service would be friendly and top class!

    Yeah this crazy women should have paid her bill but all this race talk is just too funny. Maybe the whites need to start filling the comments on all the news stories here about black people stealing… there’s at least one every day. It’ll be a full time job.

    Like 6
    Dislike 8
  20. Biggie says:

    Instead forcing she to live in prison she should be shackled to a pole next to the raw sewage line flowing through our streets or forced to stay stay in a home next to the toxic fumes coming from our dump or forced to attend one our mold invested schools or even worse forced to try to access the internet with our slo and espensive provider.

  21. Richgdgy says:

    Cmon people its about some i—t not paying her bill,not about racism!

  22. Stop jt says:

    Thats my wife.she wack.

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