Con-man’s female accomplice nabbed at highway resort

Sep 03, 2012 News

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$8oM house lot scam…

 

– gang used demand for East Bank land to lure clients
– woman posed as Housing Ministry employee
– splurged money on vehicles and parties

 

By Michael Jordan and Abena Rockliffe

Police appear to be closing in on a gang of confidence tricksters that has raked in some $80M from the sale of bogus house lots.
Officials confirmed last night that detectives have nabbed a female member of the gang and that the woman has been spilling the beans on the group that has been operating for about a year.
Kaieteur News understands that the woman, said to be the gang leader’s sister-in-law, was arrested yesterday afternoon at a popular highway resort after a man who had been fleeced by the group recognized the woman and contacted the police. A source identified her as the individual who posed as a Housing Ministry employee and collected money from the unsuspecting clients after handing them bogus Housing Ministry documents indicating that their house lot application had been approved.
Investigators have reportedly collected hundreds of the bogus documents.
But the alleged mastermind, who barely eluded police on Friday, is still at large.
The housing Ministry has since posted up a sign at the Grove, East Bank Demerara house where the suspect has been living.
Sources close to the investigation revealed that the fraudster, who goes by the aliases ‘Prem Persaud’, ‘Prem Rampersaud’ and ‘Jeff’, had three separate gangs, including one on the East Coast of Demerara and another on the East Bank of Demerara and the lower West Coast of Demerara.
Their main targets were people seeking house lots on the East Bank of Demerara.
The sums handed over for the documents varied from $250,000 ‘down-payments’ to $500,000 and $1M.
Kaieteur News was told that even prominent individuals, including one in real estate, were fleeced.
“Everybody wants a house lot on the East Bank of Demerara,” so people fall for it,” a source said.

HOW THE CON WORKED

According to information, the gang would lure their potential victims by pretending to have a ‘contact’ in the Housing Ministry.
The potential home-owner would then hand over an initial down-payment to have the Housing Ministry documents processed.  The ringleader would then take the ‘client’ to a Justice of the Peace to get a statement of income.
The client would then be taken to a woman in the gang who posed as a Housing Ministry employee. This meeting would take place at a Camp Street location. Afterwards the ‘client’ had handed off the rest of the cash, the ‘Housing Ministry employee’ would give the ‘client’ bogus documents indicating that he or she was now in possession of a house lot. In other cases, some were given letters indicating that they were now approved to participate in the Housing Ministry’s ‘One Stop Shop’ programme, where house lots are given out to persons at locations such as the National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Kaieteur News was told that the gang splurged much of their ill-gotten wealth on expensive vehicles and parties. One of their favourite hang-outs was the highway resort at which the female member was nabbed yesterday.

VICTIM’S STORY

One victim, who spoke to Kaieteur News, recalled that he became involved in May.  He disclosed that he wasn’t approached, but met a gang member after learning of house lot purchasing scheme by word of mouth.
“I hear de talks that people getting cheap cheap land from a man that get connection in the Ministry of Housing.
The man revealed that the first set of money paid was to the tune of $130,000 “to offset the paper work process”.
He then paid over 250,000, which was said to be half of the value of the land.
The agreement was for a two to three-week wait while the Ministry of Housing processed paper works after which the second half of payments will be paid. He was reportedly given two bogus lots. They were identified as Lot 193 Little Diamond. Another was given as Lot 204 Little Diamond.
But after the two weeks elapsed, all contact stopped between the ‘client’ and “the man with Housing Ministry contacts.”
The victim and family started doing their own investigations.
The one person they saw was a “red girl” that initially gave her name as Susanne. “But that is not she real name, we eventually find out she real name and track she down now she get arrest.”
But it is estimated that the fraudsters fleeced some 150 victims before the scheme began to fall apart.
Housing Ministry officials began to get wind of the scam when several of the clients failed to acquire their lots and began enquiring at the Ministry. Investigators within the Ministry tried to track down the ringleader, who apparently heard about the development. This reportedly caused him to shut down his Lower West Coast Demerara operation.
Last week, he was eventually tracked to a house at Grove, East Bank Demerara. However, he reportedly managed to slip through a back window and flee in one of his vehicles.

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