West Coast drama as police arrest woman over $6M stolen lumber

Sep 02, 2014 News

The stolen lumber being removed from a Vreed-en-Hoop yard last evening.

It would have been a perfect crime. But then fate intervened.

The victim, Mohamed Riaaz Karim of Roden Rust, East Bank Essequibo is now thanking his lucky stars after he not only escaped serious trouble with the police after he tendered a forged cheque, but also managed to retrieve his lumber.

The story all started last week when Karim, a sawmiller, received a call from man claiming he was from the Beharry Group of Companies. The caller named a prominent manager of the company and said he wanted 9,000 board measurements (BM’s) for a housing project that is being constructed at Mocha.

Another sawmill had been approached but was unable to meet the order and had then referred the client to Karim, the caller related.

The transaction did not immediately raise the suspicions of the businessman who said the use of the company’s name was what reassured him.

The man kept calling him over the week and said he expected the delivery to be made last Saturday. However, the sawmill could not supply some of the specific measurements and when this was relayed, the purported “employee” of Beharry said nevertheless he would be sending the full payment.

He even enquired which Manager’s Cheque the sawmiller would prefer.

On Saturday, the delivery of lumber was made to a site along the Mocha Road, East Bank Demerara, where several homes are being built in the housing areas opened there.

Although the sawmiller thought it a little strange that he was asked to drop the wood along the roadside, he still did not think too much of it. His customer assured him that more orders can be expected.

However, the next day, Sunday, the sawmiller decided to take the cheque, supposedly valued at $5.9M, to the Citizen’s Bank where he was told that it did not look genuine. The bank employee held onto the cheque and asked Karim to return on Monday around midday.

The sawmiller still did not think much of it. Yesterday, a female who identified herself as an employee of the bank at Parika called him and requested that he come in at 10:00hrs.

At the bank, he was asked for his identification card and told to sit.

Karim said he was waiting for quite a while when he saw a police rank enter the bank. The policeman sat next to him.

After a while, he was approached by the bank employee and security official and asked to come upstairs.

There, in the presence of the police, Karim was told that the cheque was not one issued by the bank and is suspected to be forged.

He was handed over to the police and taken to the Parika Police Station where he was immediately locked up.

He was later transferred to the Leonora Police Station where he was asked to give a statement.

The drama continued when Karim’s father who heard he was at the police station decided to drive there. However, his car ran into problems at Vreed-en-Hoop and he was forced to stop at a mechanic. While the vehicle was being fixed, the father decided to pick a fruit from one of the trees in the yard. He happened to glance over to the yard behind and saw a huge pile of lumber which had familiar markings.

He learnt that wood had been dropped there late Saturday night.

The father immediately alerted the Leonora Police Station where ranks and Karim arrived shortly after.

The sawmiller immediately identified the lumber as that which he had supplied to the “client”.

Police reportedly took away a woman for questioning. The lumber was also reportedly removed.