Over Rs 350 m defrauded:

Duo running bogus job agency nabbed

Suranjith PERERA

Two suspects who had defrauded unsuspecting youths to the tune of over Rs 350 million by promising jobs and higher educational opportunities abroad were arrested by the Special Operations Unit of the Colombo Fraud Bureau while they were hiding at Thalpitiya, Wadduwa recently.

This followed a tip off given by some of the aggrieved youth who had been cheated by the suspects.

A spokesman for the Frauds Bureau said several police stations in the country had received complaints against these suspects while the Frauds Bureau alone had received more than 200 complaints.

Investigations revealed that the suspects had charged Rs 1.2 million from job and education seekers but failed to provide a single job or education opportunities abroad so far.

They had carried on this racket taking cover behind an institution called Nandana Enterprises situated in Kirillapone opposite the Kirillapone police station.

They have even conducted lectures and workshops in English at several outstation venues for job and education seekers to clear any suspicions in their minds about their bona fides.

Although they had started this racket in 1997 not a single person who had paid them money has so far been sent abroad for jobs or education.

Several persons who appeared as Krishantha, Jeyaraj, Anuruddha, Gajaman and Arjan had acted as agents to obtain clients for them. The agency had not been registered at the SLBFE.

The two suspects Sena Hendrige Sugath Nandana Gunasekara of Uswatte Lane, Moratuwa and Kithsiri Dissanayake of Nikaweratiya were produced in the Colombo Magistrates Court No 4 on Monday and remanded.

The arrests were made by a police team led by SPs Sanjaya Irasinghe and Duncan Paul under the direction of SP J A K Mark and orders of IGP N K Ilangakoon.