DIG: Counterfeit cheques used for first time to withdraw money

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The police investigating the withdrawal of Rs 43 mn from several branches of a private bank on April 12 have arrested a person who printed counterfeit cheques to perpetrate the unprecedented fraud. The police said that the suspect, a resident of Hanwella, had managed a printing press.

DIG (Legal) Attorney-at-Law Ajith Rohana said that there hadn’t been any previous instance of fake cheques being used to withdraw money. Asked whether the printer had masterminded the fraud, DIG Rohana said that the Hanwella resident and an employee of the private bank planned the ‘operation.’ They had withdrawn Rs 43 mn belonging to one of the country’s leading steel producer, the lawyer said.

The 34-year-old bank employee is a resident of Kelaniya and Kaluaggala.

Responding to another query, DIG Rohana said that they had sent five persons to Borella, Rajagiriya, Dalugama, Fort, Pettah and Kiribathgoda branches of the private banks where the  steel producer maintained accounts. Investigations have revealed that the bank employee had provided an original cheque and the numbers issued to the steel producer to the printer.

According to DIG Rohana of the five persons who cashed cheques, the police had arrested one. “We have identified the others and are in the process of tracking them down,” DIG Rohana said, adding that one of them had visited two branches of the private bank.

DIG Rohana said that they had entered five branches of the bank simultaneously on April 12. Clad in uniform worn by the workers of the company concerned, they had acted as if they had withdrawn money to make payments for Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

Of the five involved, the arrested person had obtained cash from two branches, the police said, revealing that the 27-year-old suspect was a junior executive of a private firm.

DIG Rohana said that among those taken into custody was a 51-year-old person who had returned from the UK about a month back and was now residing at Ranala.