A THIRTY-two-year-old con-artist was, on Friday, February 15, 2019, arraigned before Magistrate Leron Daly, for impersonating the Minster of Health, Volda Lawrence, and obtaining $2.1M worth in phone credit from a city businessman.

Mohammed Ali, also called ‘Gobin’, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence at the Camp Street Prison, made his ‘yearly’ appearance before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, charged with fraud.

Particulars of the charge alleged that, between October 5, 2018, and October 10, 2018, at Georgetown, with intent to defraud, Ali obtained from Julius Belgrave $2.1M worth in phone credit, by falsely pretending that he was Minister Lawrence.

“I’m incarcerated, I’m a high-profile prisoner at the Camp Street prison and I’m on lockdown,” Ali told the court as he denied the charge.

Police Prosecutor Sanj Singh told the court that Ali, while imprisoned, called Belgrave pretending to be Minster Lawrence and asked the businessman to supply the Ministry of Health with phone credit.

Belgrave, after supplying the credit, went to the Ministry of Health to uplift his payment only to discover that no such agreement existed.
The matter was reported to the police and the number was traced to Ali, at the Camp Street Prison.

Magistrate Daly remanded Ali to prison until February 21, 2019.
In 2018, Ali was sentenced to a total of six months’ imprisonment for impersonating First Lady Sandra Granger, and conning three women.

In 2017, Mohammed Ali was charged with three counts of obtaining money by false pretense by pretending to be First Lady Sandra Granger, and that he was in a position to grant three women scholarships, knowing same to be false.

Ali defrauded the three women over $200,000 worth in GTT and Digicel phone cards.
In 2015, Ali was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of fleecing several unsuspecting females, including an elderly woman and two school girls, of hundreds of thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry and electronic gadgets.