Lankan Man Arrested in German Job Scam
(COLOMBO) – A Sri Lankan man was arrested on Monday after he is alleged to have duped several foreign employee hopefuls with the promise of lucrative employment in Germany in return for large fees.
He is alleged to have taken several persons to the cleaners and obtained some Rs. 2.5 million according to initial police investigations.
“This figure could be much larger once the probe is concluded, ” one official said.
The 58-year-old suspect was arrested from a safe house at Peliyagoda in the outskirts of the commercial capital of Colombo following a tip-off received on the police hotline, the official said.
Initial investigations have also found out that the suspect had posed off as a District Judge and lawyer in order to convince his unsuspecting victims.
The police investigation has revealed that the suspect defrauded over Rs. 2,400,000 through these false promises of employment in Germany.
Police are also investigating more complaints against the suspect made at various other police stations.
The authorities have repeatedly warned the public against such confidence tricksters and have urged people seeking overseas employment to be registered with a licensed foreign employment agency that is sanctioned by the State.
“However it appears that many of them are not listening to this advice and at the end of the day they are taken to the cleaners”, a senior official with the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said.
