Woman, 2 men charged with $435,000 fraud

A WOMAN and two men have been charged for fraud offences totalling $435,000.

They were scheduled to appear virtually before a Chaguanas magistrate on Tuesday.

A police release identified the accused as Vanessa Sam and Shaneil Hosein, both of Freeport, and Shellford Roberts of San Fernando, who also goes by the aliases Kumar Maraj and Shiva Maraj.

They were arrested by Chaguanas CID officers after three people reported paying money to three people who claimed they were associated with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and could acquire state-built houses on their behalf.

When the victims later discovered the three had no connection to the HDC, they reported the fraud to the police.

The release added that police carried out searches after the arrests and seized $17,000 cash along with a BMW sedan in connection with a parallel investigation for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Additional charges are expected to be laid on the completion of that investigation, which was led by ASP Dipchand. Charges were laid by PC Meah of the Chaguanas CID.