Minister Ali optimistic about apprehending more housing fraudsters
SOME more persons have, allegedly, been caught tampering with documents belonging to the Ministry of Housing and Water and the responsible Minister, Mr. Irfaan Ali has vowed to “uproot them from wherever they are.” Speaking at his Brickdam, Georgetown office, he pledged to do so after recalling how, just recently, the Ministry was able to infiltrate a similar group operating out of Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
Last Wednesday, the Ministry was, again, able to discover others posing as housing officials in their bid to defraud people.
The fraud is perpetrated by taking transports, erasing the names and other information of the original owners, putting on the victims’ names, then photocopying the documentations and issue them as genuine.
“We believe there is a group. Most of the schemes operate in a group. Over the last two years, we have busted more than five of these groups. They go into the housing schemes, see the vacant lots, carry people and show them the lots and tell them these are the ones they will get,” the Minister explained.
One of the recent victims, an overseas-based Guyanese, lost in excess of $1M and the suspects in that instance are being sought. The investigations, so far, revealed that one of them is known only as Bradley while the other has been described as having plait hair.
Minister Ali described persons who fall prey to the fraudulent scheme as “susceptible and naïve”, as the only right way to conduct businesses of that nature is to go into the Housing Ministry and deal with the officers there.
Appealing to prospective home owners, he reiterated that is the only legitimate way to be assured of not being victim in such fraudulent endeavours.

NOT HEEDING
“It is sad that persons within our society are still not heeding the Ministry’s call to avoid themselves being caught up in these circumstances,” Ali remarked.
Any person with information on the frauds is asked to make immediate contact with the Ministry.
Earlier this year, the Eccles group was discovered, through the Ministry’s internal control system, an enforcement mechanism, tampering with housing documents, such as land titles and transports.
On that occasion, a number of persons were defrauded and the suspected fraudsters, who were arrested, are before the court.
But, according to Ali, there are certain small details that the Ministry looks for, with which those individuals are not acquainted.
And through those, besides the fact that each transport is numbered, the imposters are caught.
He expressed great optimism that the pretenders will be found. “We are working on the descriptions we have and the victims have some amount of contact with them, so we are very, very optimistic that we will find them very shortly.”