More Charges for Bogus Car Salesman Melbourne Wade

Melbourne Wade, a former car dealer now claiming to be a salesman for the past two weeks, is in hot water again with the law. He’s facing two more counts of obtaining property by deception. Previously, he was hit with five similar charges for allegedly swindling money from his victims, mostly women, including former Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya. Wade would promise to put a deposit on a car or rent a vehicle to sell, but he never delivered, taking their money instead. This morning, after being held at the Queen Street Police Station, Wade was brought to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court to answer these new charges. In Court #3, he faced a charge from sixty-two-year-old Shirley Garbutt, who claimed she paid him a five thousand, five hundred downpayment for a 2018 Ford Escape. Wade pleaded not guilty and was granted bail of five thousand dollars. Minutes later, he appeared in Court #2 for another charge from forty-year-old Stacey Hemmans, who alleged she paid him five thousand dollars as a first installment on a rent-to-own agreement for a 2018 Ford Escape. Wade claimed Hemmans wanted to withdraw the charge, but this wasn’t true. The prosecutor objected to bail, citing the strength of the case and Wade’s history of similar charges. Wade, without an attorney, made an emotional plea for bail, saying he had changed his life, just got a job, and needed to care for his son. He begged for leniency, claiming to be his family’s breadwinner and a newly sworn-in campaign manager. Despite the prosecutor’s objections, the Senior Magistrate granted Wade bail with conditions set at three thousand, five hundred dollars. Wade’s next court dates are January seventeenth and January twentieth, 2025.