(Jamaica Observer) – The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica’s (BNS’) Information Technology (IT) Centre has been implicated in what the police have described as the identity theft of the bank’s former president and chief executive officer William ‘Bill’ Clarke with whom it has been involved in a bitter legal battle.
As a result, the Observer has learnt that despite the fact that the identity of the person or persons responsible remains unknown, action is being contemplated under Section 5 and/or 6 of the Libel and Slander Act (1851).
Civil proceedings are also being contemplated for injury and damage to Clarke’s reputation, the Observer was informed.
In June, a person pretending to be Clarke created a profile on the social networking site Facebook and posted comments attacking the Observer‘s reports on the banker’s bitter legal battle with the Canada-based bank.
The profile also featured pictures of Clarke at various social events, as well as comments purporting to be coming from Clarke in relation to his legal battle with BNS. The fake Bill Clarke also approved friends, including local journalists and politicians, joined groups and foundations, played games and replied to comments posted on his profile wall.
The impostor also became the fan of politicians, talk show hosts and famous writers.
An astonished Clarke, during an interview with the Observer at the time of the fake profile discovery in July, denied having an account with Facebook when this newspaper alerted him to the profile.
“I don’t know what a Facebook is. I have never signed up for any of these things in my life. The only thing I have is a Hotmail address,” Clarke said at the time when contacted by the Observer.
“This is nothing but an individual who is trying to sully my name further. I would like you to say that I have disassociated myself from this. It’s ridiculous really,” Clarke added.
Clarke then made a report to the Cyber Crime Investigation and Research Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary, which then contacted Facebook to have the offending web page shut down.
On July 17, Clarke, through his attorneys, took action against Facebook in the United States in an effort to identify the origin of the postings.
The US courts ruled in Clarke’s favour and the origin of some of the postings were traced back to the IP address of ScotiaBank’s IT Centre in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew.
A warrant was last week Friday executed on BNS and detectives seized documents from the centre.
BNS said it was fully co-operating with investigators in the matter.
Clarke is now awaiting a ruling from Court of Appeal over his row with the bank for his retirement package.
Clarke retired from BNS on November 1 last year after more than 40 years of service.
