[23tommy]

New Straits Times
Friday, May 25, 2012

GEORGE TOWN - A man who posed as an Education Department officer and duped 100 contractors of about RM150,000 (SG$60,721) since last year, finally met his match when police detained him early this week.

The jobless suspect, in his 40s, had impersonated as someone influential from the Education Ministry and convinced the contractors he could help them secure contracts via open tender.

He had swindled contractors from Penang, Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Pahang since early last year.

Among the "contracts" offered by the man were for cleaning, canteen and general upgrading projects.

The imposter, from Penang, had misled the victims into believing that he was able to seal the deals on receiving up-front payments.

He would get in touch with the victims before asking them to deposit between RM2,000 and RM4,000 each into a specified bank account as up-front payment.

State Commercial Crime Investigations Department chief Assistant Commissioner Roslee Chik said the suspect had polished his act and was very convincing in getting the contractors to believe him.

"The victims only realised they had been cheated when they could not locate him at the respective state and district Education Departments."

The suspect was arrested at the Bakar Arang Industrial Estate in Sungai Petani about 4.30pm on Monday.

He was caught while withdrawing cash from an ATM machine.

Police seized 19 ATM cards bearing foreigners' names which were in his possession and RM8,600.

Police also confiscated several bank savings account books, jewellery pawnshop tickets, a list of names of schools in the country as well as alleged victims' names.

He said initial investigations revealed the suspect had a previous criminal breach of trust conviction and even a restricted residence order.

Roslee said there were 31 police reports lodged against the suspect, with 16 cases reported in Penang alone.

He said police believed more victims were probably involved as many had yet to lodge reports.

On another issue, Roslee said police were hot on the heels of syndicate members impersonating as police officers, Bank Negara Malaysia and home ministry officials.

He said the fraudsters would contact the victims' family members and concoct a tale of how their kin were detained overseas for alleged wrongdoings.

He added that the conmen then demanded that the victims transfer money on-line to a specified bank account before they offered their help in securing their release.