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Tamil Nadu
Conmen, banks and white-collar crime Law & order
Not all criminals brandish knives. There are some who use more modern ways of breaking the law. L. Srikrishna profiles one such white-collar criminal
Many of the people figuring in the police records in North Chennai are involved in crimes such as murder, robbery or kidnap. But here is a man arrested by the police allegedly involved in white collar crimes.
Recently, the police got their hands on one of the most ‘wanted’ tricksters in the city, a man who had cheated banks of over Rs 3 crore in less than five years.
The man, aged about 30, has several names. In the police records, he is Lathabas.
The arrest of Lathabas is considered crucial in police circles as investigations suggested that he had links with “Vellai” Ravi, who is wanted in connection with many criminal offences.
A month ago, a merchant from Red Hills was kidnapped, and police suspect “Vellai” Ravi to be behind it. The merchant won his freedom after parting with a ransom of Rs 60 lakh. The seizure of a two-wheeler used in the kidnap helped them nab Lathabas.
A graduate, Lathabas, became friendly with a computer-savvy person in T.Nagar few years ago. He learnt to fabricate documents using popular image editing software such as Photoshop and PageMaker.
His first attempts at fabrication were a driving licence, salary certificate and consumer cards issued by TNEB and LPG dealers. Lathabas furnished them to banks for opening savings accounts. In many instances, he posed as an employee of a BPO call centre or a software company. Once the bank was convinced of his bona fides, he took credit cards, personal loans and enjoyed other facilities.
In fact, a bank had given Rs 28 lakh as loan to Lathabas for purchasing a flat.
Whether the documents submitted as collateral were forged or genuine is under investigation by the Central Crime Branch police, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Pulianthope) G.Sampath Kumar said. During investigation, police found that Lathabas had about 15 to 20 accomplices who had opened new accounts in banks, posing as call centre employees. A senior police officer said that the banks should tighten their verification methods to guard against such tricksters.
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