In the North: Fake horsepower network dismantled by police

The Special Squad of the Northern Division arrested four people on Tuesday, February 14th. They sold rented cars to their victims. Forty-five fake ‘horsepower’, about twenty insurance certificates and five cars, among others, were seized.

No one would have believed that a scam claim would have led to the dismantling of a fake horsepower network. On Saturday, after two individuals lodged a complaint with the police in Triolet for fraud, officers of the Northern Division went on to inquire.

“We gave Rs 580,000 to the owner for the cars we wanted to buy. He told us that one Aslam and Zaheer would take care of the registration of the two cars. However, the latter refused to do so and we thought there was something suspicious,” the two victims explained.

The Special Squad’s officers seized the two cars, which were supposedly sold to the scam victims, for the purposes of the investigation and arrested four suspects. They are Mohamad Yunus Dhundass, inhabitant of Curepipe, Kumarsing Ancharaz, inhabitant of Beau Bassin, Gaëtan Lindsay, resident of La Tour Koenig, and Steeve Pondor, resident of Rose Hill. A search was carried out at the home of Mohamad Yunus Dhundass and 45 false horsepower certificates, twenty insurance certificates, an electric baton, a laptop, an external hard disk, a memory card, a printer, three knives, false seals of the National Transport Authority and a tonfa, among others, were found.

Three other cars were seized on Wednesday after three individuals lodged a complaint with the police. The investigators called on the owners of the cars to come forward and identify their vehicle and invited the victims to file a complaint. A lawyer might be involved in this case.

According to our sources, Aslam and Zaheer borrowed and rented cars that they would then sell to customers without the approval of the owners. And to avoid getting into trouble with the Mauritius Revenue Authority, they would then transfer the cars to their victims, who were unaware that the cars they bought were actually rented ones.

The four suspects appeared before the court of Pamplemousses on Wednesday. Kumarsing Ancharaz, Gaëtan Lindsay and Steeve Pondor responded with a provisional charge of “forgery”, while Yunus Dhundass was provisionally charged with “using computer device to commit an offence.” Only the first two appointed were released on bail.

Aslam and Zaheer were arrested in the early evening. They testified in the presence of Mr. Ashik Toorabally. Placed in detention, they will appear before the tribunal of Pamplemousses this Thursday. The investigation, led by Sergeant Busgeet, is supervised by SP Gokool and ASP Musafeer.