Police are looking for the mother of three-year-old Jessica Manohar, who left with her daughter by Air Ambulance on Monday for medical treatment at the Children’s Hospital in Miami.
They are searching for her in connection with several reports by persons who were allegedly fleeced of thousands of dollars under the pretext that she can get them a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) home in South Trinidad.
Following a report in TnT Mirror (Friday December 9, 2011) about the plight of the child, who mistook rat poison for candy and ate it, several people called Mirror saying they are searching for Jessica’s mother, Michelle Manohar, for some months now in connection with HDC houses near Retrench Village, San Fernando earlier this year.
Among them were three teachers at the Tableland Hindu primary school, who alleged that they paid sums ranging between $65,000 and $30,000 to Manohar, who promised that she has a “contact” at the HDC and can get them affordable two-bedroom houses at a rental cost of $300 a month.
A spokeswoman for the teachers said that Manohar was well-known to them since she had a nine-year-old son who attends the school.
“When she told us that she knows someone in HDC who can get us houses, we trusted her since she and her parents are known to us,” the teacher said.
“She collected $65,000, $40,000 and $30,000 from the three of us to hand over to a man at HDC as the down payments for the houses,” the teacher explained.
She said a woman who runs a café in the school also gave her $39,000 of her hard-earned cash for the down payment of a house.
She said that they were given a runaround some months after the woman claimed that she has not seen the man to get the documents for the houses.
A few months after, the teacher said that all calls to her cell phones went unanswered and up to now they are unable to contact Manohar.
She said that they gave the police the receipts of the monies paid and are hoping that the police can find her to pay back the various sums.
One of the teachers said Manohar’s mother, who lives in Tableland, has promised to repay her but to date she has not received any money.
The Ministry of Health has also been trying to contact Manohar for about a month after she collected two cheques – one for US$46,000 – for her daughter’s medical bills in Miami and $23,000 for the Air Ambulance to take her to Florida.
The child has been in hospital since May 26 after she consumed the poison. Jessica was first hospitalized at the San Fernando General Hospital and was transferred the Gulf View Medical Complex, San Fernando and after sent to Just Because Foundation Pediatric Ward at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope on June 23, where she stayed until last Monday.
Mirror has been trying to call Manohar since last week before she left Trinidad but all calls went to voicemail.
When contacted, HDC managing director Jearlean John said people have been warned through newspaper advertisements about paying money to obtain houses.
She confirmed that there are people out there involved in the scam to collect money under the pretext to get them HDC houses.
Correction is was married to a SHAH, she is not a SHAH, she is a MANOHAR, lives KHANS AVE branch no 2
shameful to the commnity, "when the apple to sweet it get worms".
now she is back in the trinindad, the authorites should do something now.
She was not ah shah although she was married into the family n also took thousands of dollars from her in-laws.
I think her name Surname is Shah and not Manohar but this whole situation is crazy, i have known her for a while, she lives close by, she always seem like a nice person, i almost got tricked into giving her money as well thank god i was broke at the time, trust me she is the best con artiste around and the sad thing about it, her father is a respectful man in the community he is a very genuine person and he and the rest of her family have to pay the price for her mental disorder now.
ammm nope her surname is manohar she never changed it tew SHAH even when she was married it was still manohar
This is someone that I have have known for a long time. It is unfortunate to say this but she has always been a dishonest person involved in many scams over the years. What the police should be investigating is the child abuse issue because Michelle has been making that child sick with poison to get away from the law. Sad to say that a mother would do that but it is so true…..