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Crime & Punishment of Friday, 26 June 2015

Source: The Chronicle

Ashaiman Police chase suspected fraudster

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The Ashaiman Police has mounted a 24-hour search for Amfo Amoah, alias J.K, for allegedly duping a number of the banks and unsuspecting individuals to the tune of several thousands of Ghana Cedis.

The financial institutions that have been badly hit by the Amfo Amoah’s scams include the Ashaiman branch of the Opportunity International and Pro-credit Savings and Loans.

The Ashaiman Police who are investigating the case say, they will work relentlessly until the suspect is nabbed.

Inspector Emmanuel Frimpong who is handling the case is therefore asking for the co-operation of the general public in locating the suspected fraudster, who has a couple of cases in his name.

This reporter understood that not too long ago at Afariwa where he stays, as many as 10 Police men stormed his house just off the Afienya road at dawn, but never found him.

According to neighbours ever since then, Amfo Amoah has never stepped foot there and is believed to have relocated to some other unknown environ, possibly as far away as to Koforidua.

Some accounts say he is a popular car dealer who owns a garage just near the Royal Ravico Hotel at Nungua, and was last seen in public with one of the cars he had used as collateral to secure the loan facility from the said savings and loans outlet.

The situation has pushed an unnamed family member who guaranteed the loan for him in deep trouble, following the bank’s pursuance and persistence to get the guarantor to repay the loan. Already, the Good Samaritan’s cousin who fell to the pranks of the suspect Anfo Amoah has had to pay off over GHC32,000 for playing the role as the guarantor.

Meanwhile, as the security agents follow the hazy trail of the absconded Anfo Amoah, his cell phones have all gone dead even though one outstanding number, 02734243… remains open but is never attended to by the owner if he does not know for certain whoever is calling, security sources told this paper.

The predicament of the banks started in 2014 when Amfo Amoah approached them and in the process managed to secure almost GHC30,000.00 from the Savings and Loans outlet. In securing the loan, a Sprinter bus with registration number GT 5250-14 was used as collateral.

On September 11, 2014, the bank finally released the money to Amfo Amoah with the hope that he was going to keep to the set repayment schedule. However, a few months later the bank could not trace him.

The situation therefore, compelled the bank to contact the driver of the Sprinter bus that was used as collateral in securing the loan, ostensibly to defray part of the costs.

However, the management of the bank was shell-shocked when the driver informed them how the Anfo Amoah stormed a car station one morning of the very month he secured the loan, and took away the car from him.

When all efforts to reach the AmfoAmoah failed, the bank had no option than to fall on the family member, the cousin, who guaranteed the loan. Apart from Opportunity International, a similar facility Amoah took from Pro-Credit has also taken a dangerous turn in that, he is yet to service that debt too.

It has further emerged that Amfo Amoah did not spare this cousin who guaranteed one of the loan facilities for him and after taken a GHC30,000.00 from the bank, he still managed to take away yet another GHC30,000.00 from him with the promise to buy him a saloon car.

Even though he managed to purchase the said Hyundai Sentafe in question for his cousin, Amfo Amoah failed to provide the documents covering the car which has since been whisked away under his influence and direction to an unknown destination.

When contacted, his pitiful cousin could only state “how can my own kith and kin ease in my right palm and daringly cover the mess with my very left? There cannot be a faithful man left on this planet”, he submitted dejectedly.