04 arrested, 04 at-large in Rs. 43 Mn bogus cheque scam

Colombo (News 1st); 04 people were arrested for committing an act of financial fraud in April 2021, to the tune of Rs. 43 Million, said Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana on Sunday (02).

The arrests were made by the Criminal Investigations Department following a complaint by a steel manufacturing company that claimed Rs. 43 Mn was withdrawn from their account with a private bank, upon resuming operations after the April holidays, said the Police Spokesperson. "The suspects had printed a fake checkbook similar to the checkbook used by the complainant," CID investigations revealed. The gang had deployed five people dressed in the uniform of the steel manufacturing company with fake cheques to withdraw money from several branches of the private bank, said the Police Spokesperson. The main suspect is the printer of the cheques and he was arrested from Hanwella and his accomplice was a person who recently arrived in Sri Lanka from the UK. A bank employee was arrested by Sri Lanka Police as well while the 04th suspect is a person employed in a private company, considered as one person who used the cheques to withdraw money. Sri Lanka Police have identified the other 04 people who used the cheques to withdraw money and operations are underway to arrest them.