A man arrested in Lilongwe for obtaining money by pretence
Police in Lilongwe have arrested a 47-year old man, Dibious Mphanje, on suspicion that he has been obtaining money from people on the pretext that he would recruit them in return.
Mphanje was allegedly posing as an officer from Plan International Malawi and used to dupe Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) holders from Nathenje, Kamphata, Area 22 and 25 in Lilongwe.
According to the police, the suspect was telling people that Plan International Malawi is recruiting MSCE holders to carry out a Primary School Dropout Survey that would run for three months from January 2022.
Lilongwe Police Station Public Relations Officer Inspector Hastings Chigalu said Mphanje was arranging a date to meet at New Building Society (NBS) Bank with the job seekers, demanding each of them to bring K5, 000 for opening of bank accounts and K7, 000 for the purported organization, respectively.
“On 17th December when he took a group of some of the job seekers to Lilongwe, Area 3, NBS Bank one of them got suspicious with the activities and informed us. We rushed immediately and arrested the suspect.
“By then, ten of the job seekers had already opened their bank accounts. Upon search, the suspect was found with K50 thousand which he admitted he had collected from the job seekers,” explained Chigalu.
He added that Mphanje was also found with photocopied MSCE certificates and National Identity (ID) cards, among other documents.
The police cross-checked with Plan International Malawi, which denied having Dibious Mphanje in their system as one of the organization’s workers.
Mphanje comes from Kanigo Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mazengera in Lilongwe. He will appear in court soon to answer a case of Obtaining Money by false pretence, which contravenes Section 319 of the Penal Code.
