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Housing scam unearthed…Fraudsters “whiteout”, alter transports in illegal land sales
Fraudsters, using altered photocopies of transports, have managed to scam a number of would-be house lot owners of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The disclosure was made by Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, on Thursday.
Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, displaying a copy of one transport which was altered by fraudsters.
His Ministry, he said, has successfully infiltrated a group posing as housing officials and defrauding persons.
“They are taking transports and whiteout the original owners and information and they put the victim’s name in the transport, photocopy it and issue it as a transport…It is sad that persons within our society are still not heeding the Ministry’s call to avoid being caught-up in these circumstances,” Minister Ali is quoted as saying in a Government release.
He added that information has thus far revealed that two persons were victims, one of whom is an overseas-based Guyanese who paid more than $1M.
“One of the suspect’s names was just given as Bradley, while the other was described as a person with plait hair…we are asking members of the public to be vigilant and to desist from encouraging these fraudsters by participating in these fraudulent schemes,” the Housing Minister said.
Ali had in his possession one of the forged transports which was constructed by the fraudsters. Earlier in the year, the Ministry also successfully infiltrated a group operating out of Eccles, East Bank Demerara. The persons were tampering with housing documents, titles and transports in an effort to defraud persons.
“A number of persons were defrauded by that group…the group was arrested and the matter is before the courts,” Ali said.
With a number of housing schemes going up across the country and still a huge demand for house lots, there have been reported cases of many lands still remaining vacant.
Quite a significant number of persons have migrated but are unwilling to relinquish their hold on their property.
It is believed that some confidence tricksters would survey some of the empty lots, alter existing documents and use these to “prove” ownership to unsuspecting persons who believe that they are getting into a good bargain.
Government has restricted the sale of new house lots until they have been in legal possession of the owner for 10 years. But there have been numerous reported cases of the lands being sold illegally.
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