Attempted Rs.500 million fraud foiled

6 May 2013 05:30 am

A retired superintendent of police, the wife of  a former vice captain of the Sri Lanka Cricket Team and  nine others have been taken into custody by  the Colombo West- North CID for allegedly attempting a fraud of Rs 500 million on the promise of supplying 100 kilograms of gold belonged to the government

Among the others arrested are a computer operator, a retired air force officer and a 65 year old woman.

 The arrested were ordered to be remanded till May 5 by the Fort Magistrate.

The Army Intelligence Unit had informed the West –North DIG about a woman negotiating the sale of some gold after receiving a tip off. IP Upul Samasinha and a CID team had arrested the suspect after receiving the information.

A police officer and an officer of the Army Intellegence unit had posing  as millionaires and arranged to pay Rs 10 million as an advance in a hotel in Colombo. During the transaction, nine suspects had been arrested.

Police are on the lookout to arrest another suspect.

These suspects had also attempted, on several previous occasions, to defraud millionaires of Rs 500 million by pretending to sell them gold on behalf of the government. However these earlier attempts had failed as the millionaires had became suspicious.

The arrests had been made under the guidance of Senior DIG Anura Senanayaka and DIG Vass Gunawardena. (Srinath Prasanna Jayasuriya)