Foreign fraudsters arrested

Several foreigners, engaged in defrauding Banks and unsuspecting wealthy locals after befriending them at local banks have been arrested by the Divulapitiya Police.

Their modus operandi had been to enter local banks posing as foreign businessmen on the pretext changing Euros into local currency.

Later, after being rejected by the management as they did not possess passports, they befriend customers engaged in large transactions by first starting friendly conversation on the possible avenues of changing foreign currency into local denominations.

Posing as wealthy foreign businessmen all the while, the foreigners resort to either robbing the identified customers of a portion of the money inside the Bank itself or trail them and rob them elsewhere.

According to Police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunesekera, still a clear picture has not emerged on how these foreigners had robbed the money from the locals and Banks and interrogations were on to get a clearer picture and identify their methods.

According to Divulapitiya Police the suspects had been arrested after they stole Rs.212,000 from a retired Bank Manager inside a Bank in the area.

However, according to them the retired Bank Manager who had come for a large transaction had not known that he had been cheated until an alert security officer had alerted him to the possibility.

Later after being notified by the Bank, the Police had arrested the suspects who were fleeing in a rented cab.

They had also seized foreign currency worth Rs.1.7 million in their possession.

According to Police, complaints have been received from several other Banks in Madampe, Kandy and Colombo regarding similar frauds involving these foreign nationals in recent times.

According to Police sources in Divulapitiya, these rogue foreigners from a neighbouring South Asian country had arrived in the Negombo area initially. The Police are also conducting investigations to ascertain whether there are others, in addition to the arrested suspects.

The arrested include two elderly males an elderly female and a ten year old child.