Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Pensioner’s missing car found, con man charged
Seventy-Two year old Sukdai Ramsammy, the pensioner who gave O’Neil Simon, the con man, her blue Toyota Corolla, HC 5044, to work for hire has now been reunited with her vehicle.
O’ Neil Simon
According to the police the car was found abandoned somewhere in South Georgetown a while ago. The car is now at the East La Penitence Police Station and once all issues are cleared up with the court the car will be in Ramsammy’s possession shortly.
Yesterday, Simon appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ court before Magistrate Leron Daly, and was charged with fraudulent conversion; he was placed on $150,000 bail and is to return to court on June 26.
Ramsammy told Kaieteur News that she placed an advertisement in a local newspaper in late March for a hire care driver since the car was parked in the yard not being utilised.
The elderly woman said that she received a call and a subsequent visit from Simon, 31, of 1430 Cummings Park, East Coast of Demerara, expressing his interest in being the driver.
Ramsammy said that when Simon arrived he was accompanied by his young son and she thought that she was about to make a good decision. Simon told the pensioner that apart from plying the taxi trade, the only other business he would use the car for was to take his children to school and to attend church.
Ramsammy said that she agreed with Simon that he would ‘work’ the car and at the end of the week he was expected to give her $15,000 and he concurred.
Things went well for the first two weeks, so much so that the woman even added Simon’s name to her insurance policy. It was at the end of that 14-day period that everything changed for the worse.
Simon stopped taking the pensioner’s call and she enlisted her son to help in this regard. The son said he managed to make contact with Simon and was given all assurances that the car would have been returned.
The man added that after constantly calling Simon he was instructed to uplift the vehicle but when he and the pensioner went to the location to which they were directed they were confronted with a track filled with bush.
The day after the story was published, a passenger who travelled with a hire car from the Stabroek Market car park, recognized Simon as the driver. The car (not the pensioner’s) was attached to a city taxi service.
‘A’ Division Commander Marlon Chapman was informed of Simon’s whereabouts and he arranged for two officers from the Kitty Police station to accompany the individual who had made the report to the taxi base.
All this time, Simon was unaware of what was about to unfold. He turned up at the base in good time after hearing of a potential Georgetown to Parika drop being requested.
When he arrived, however, he was promptly arrested and taken to the Kitty police station. He reportedly told ranks there that he no longer has the elderly woman’s car, since he parked it on a bridge in the Joint Services Scheme in North Ruimveldt. He claimed that he had called the woman’s son and informed him where the car was parked.
The pensioner’s son repeated the story to the lawmen that when he went to the location the car was not there, and instead, he saw men with cutlasses approaching, thus he quickly retreated.
Simon admitted that he should have taken the car to the pensioner rather than leaving it where he claimed he did. He explained that his only reason for doing so was because he had some outstanding money for Ramsammy and he had a minor accident with the vehicle.
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