BUSTED: Nigerian Arrested Over Fake House Sale In Australia

«§» 15 August 2013

Lagos Police arrested a Nigerian fraudster for the attempted fake sale of a house in Perth, Western Australia.



The suspect, indentified as Ntuen Promise Ekenmini, was arrested on August 14, 2013, when he visited an international courier office and tried to collect settlement documents with a forged driver’s licence in the name of the real South African home owner.

The suspect will be charged with forgery and identity theft.

The operation has been conducted jointly by the Australian Police, as well as the authorities in South Africa and Nigeria, and lasted during 8 months.

The attempted fraud has allegedly began when Promise Ekenmini contacted the property manager of a West-Australian real estate agency in December 2012, claiming to own a home in Falcon, south of Perth, which was being managed by the agency.

He requested documents relating to the rented property and allegedly used a Yahoo e-mail address in the name of one of the real owners, and requested future correspondence be forwarded to that e-mail and phone calls to be made to a new mobile number.

In January 2013, the agency received a request to sell the property and a sales agreement with false signatures was completed by the offenders and returned to the agent.

Copies of fake passports and a forged document purporting to be from the Australian High Commission in Pretoria confirming their identity were also sent.

The staff at the agency got suspicious and addressed the detectives of Western Australia police to help identifying the offenders.

Australian policemen cooperated colleagues for with South Africa and Nigeria, who monitored the controlled delivery of the fake settlement documents in Johannesburg and Nigeria.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dom Blackshaw said investigations were continuing into other possible offenders, and potential links between this case and two successful and five attempted frauds reported in Western Australia in the past five years.

Six of the seven cases involved owners who lived in South Africa, had investment properties in Perth that were rented and had their identities stolen, he said.

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Posted: at 15-08-2013 11:49 AM (10 years ago) | Hero

Moust they keep tanishing dis country image wen they mistakenly travelled out of dis country and make innocent citizen dat travel suffer.

Posted: at 15-08-2013 12:18 PM (10 years ago) | Addicted Hero

Posted: at 15-08-2013 11:02 PM (10 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Hmmmmmmmm

Posted: at 18-06-2016 12:19 PM (7 years ago) | Hero