‘Detective’ Nabbed For Fraud

From (R): Kofi Owusu, Kojo Addo and Peter Owusu KOFI OWUSU, a 40-year-old writer who posed as a private detective and assisted one John Ofosu in the arrest of some fraudsters who duped him of a colossal sum of GH¢215,000.00, has been arrested on suspicions of being an ally of the same syndicate he claimed to have been investigating. The Dansoman Police Commander, Superintendent Alex Yartey Tawiah, told DAILY GUIDE on Friday September 18, before his untimely death on Saturday, that Kofi Owusu aka Joe Manasey or Frank Marine, Edward Kojo Addo, 33, trader, and Peter Owusu, 44, aka Akwasi Owusu, also a trader, were arrested on September 15, 2009 for fraud. The police boss explained that on August 10 2009, the suspects, together with three others, Kofi Ohemeng, aka Burger, Alex and Boateng, who are currently at large, contacted the complainant via the internet. They managed to convince the complainant that they had an excavator docked at the Tema harbour for sale at the cost of GH¢100,000.00. They demanded a sum of GH¢21,500.00 to cater for the freight cost of the excavator and three other cars, to which the complainant obliged. On August 10 2009, the complainant met with the suspects at community 10, Tema, where he paid part of the money for the excavator; he agreed to buy it on hire purchase. John Ofosu said he never heard from the suspects after they took the money since they cut communication with him. Two weeks before their arrest, Kofi Owusu posed as a private detective and promised to assist the complainant to arrest the fraudsters, using a certain software, at the cost of GH¢10,000.00. He paid GH¢5,000.00. Kofi Owusu, according to the complainant, had some special software that he uses to trace criminals all over the country. The self-styled detective managed to get the location of the fraudsters and their names, which was then relayed to the Dansoman Police. However, on the day scheduled for the arrests, Kofi indicated that he did not want to meet either the police or any arresting officer since he does not trust them. His demeanor raised great suspicion, thus a plain cloth police personnel was detailed to monitor him. A conversation between Kofi Owusu and one of the runaway suspects immediately after the arrest indicated that Kofi was dissatisfied with his GH¢6,000.00 share of the GH¢21,500.00 they took from the victim, a situation that caused him to act in the manner he did to get more cash from the victim. The police boss said charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and defrauding by false pretenses would be preferred against the three. By Rocklyn Antonio