– but gets off light this time around

A 43-year-old Berbician pretending to have a rare heart condition, was on Monday placed before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman for attempting to solicit money from a businessman to undergo open heart surgery.

Prem Chand, a known con-artist called Sunil Dwayne, immediately came clean with the magistrate and explained that because he was frustrated, he came up with what he thought was a fool-proof plan to get some money.

The charge alleges that Chand, on October 4, 2018 at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, with intent to commit a felony, pretended to be popular cardiologist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen to worm $100,000 out of businessman, Frank Sanchar.

Police Prosecutor Quinn Harris told the court that on the day in question, Chand called Sanchar via telephone and pretended to be Dr. Carpen, a cardiologist at the Caribbean Heart Institute, which is located at the Georgetown Public Hospital Cooperation.
He reportedly told Sanchar that he needed $100,000 to help a patient of his undergo open heart surgery.

The prosecutor said that Sanchar immediately smelt a rat and called the real Dr. Carpen, who confirmed his suspicion that the person he had spoken to was not he.

Now that he knew what he was dealing with, Sanchar then made arrangements for the caller to come and collect the money, and when Chand turned up and introduced himself as Dr. Carpen, the police were summoned and he was arrested.

Magistrate Latchman, after considering Chand’s early guilty plea and his mitigation, fined him $100,000, which sum should he fail to post carries a six-month term in prison.
Back in 2010, Chand was sentenced to six years in prison for forging the signature of then President Bharrat Jagdeo on a letter stating that he had been granted a presidential pardon, and that he should keep it a secret, particularly from the media and the police, failing which he would be dealt with severely.

At some point in his chequered past, the career conman was also charged for using the name Rabindra Rooplall to obtain $5,000 from a man by pretending that he was an Assemblies of God pastor and was collecting donations.

After his release from prison in 2016, Chand again made the news via a video on Facebook claiming that he’d woken up in the New Amsterdam Hospital morgue after being declared dead by a doctor there.

It so transpired that Chand had checked into the medical facility complaining of suffering chest pains, but was five hours later pronounced dead.

However, a senior medical practitioner from the hospital later debunked Chand claims stating that he is a well known character and was undergoing psychiatric treatment.