Ghana police say they have rescued dozens from Nigeria job scam
Seven Ghanaian suspects have been arrested in connection with the trafficking.The head of Ghana's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Lydia Yaako Donkor, said at a press briefing that the rescue operation was conducted in collaboration with Interpol and Nigerian law enforcement agencies.The victims were rescued from different states in Nigeria between 19 May and 27 June this year, and are yet to be repatriated to be reunited with their families in Ghana.The CID boss cautioned families to verify lucrative job offers and educational opportunities abroad before taking them up.She said once the victims are convinced into the scam, they are usually instructed to travel by road to an unfamiliar country.They are later transferred to "holding camps" - rented rooms where as many as 40 people are forced to live in substandard conditions. Under pressure, they are coerced into recruiting others, deceiving even their own families and friends, Ms Donkor said."The psychological and economic harm caused to these victims and their families is devastating," she said, adding that in many cases, the victims are "so malnourished and psychologically affected" that they are unable to resume their normal lives.QNET, a global lifestyle and wellness marketing company allegedly linked to the recruitment scam, has been banned from operating in Ghana since 2022 for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme.The company has repeatedly denied any involvement in fraudulent activities.Cases of individuals being lured with false job promises and getting into internet fraud schemes are not uncommon in Ghana and Nigeria.The police say efforts are ongoing to arrest all of those behind the scam.
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Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Britain's most elusive conman: The luxury lifestyle led by Zambian fraudster who stole £3.5m in elaborate scam before finally being deported after 25 YEARS
Dressed in a tailored suit and travelling only by chauffeur-driven limousines, Alick Kapikanya looked every inch the successful businessman. He lived in mansions in some of the most exclusives postcodes in leafy Cheshire, stayed in suites at five-star hotels and enjoyed a life many of us could only dream of. But beneath the glitz and glamour is not the story of a self-made man or go-getting entrepreneur. Kapikanya is in fact a fraudster who spun a web of lies stretching back decades, racking up 11 convictions including theft. And despite five deportation orders, the conman dodged being kicked out of Britain for an astonishing 27 years. But his crimes, which included stealing elderly victims' homes in an elaborate £3.5million mortgage scam, have finally caught up with him as the Appeal Court definitively ruled at the end of last month that he be deported. After 42 years in the UK, Kapikanya is to be sent back to his native Zambia. Now, as he stands defeated, the Daily Mail can reveal the luxury addresses at which he had lived while splashing his ill-gotten gains. The properties range from a riverside mansion in a desirable Cheshire town favoured by celebrities and footballers, to high-end flats in affluent suburbs in Manchester. Among his property portfolio was a gated mansion he owned between 2006 and 2007, on the sought-after Mereside Road, in Cheshire, where properties average £2.3million. Known as the area's millionaires' row, it lies in the desirable Knutsford town which forms part of Cheshire's 'Golden Triangle'. The area is popular among footballers and celebrities, and is home to the likes of England stars Jordan Pickford and John Stones. The impressive mansion is protected by tall gates and backs on to The Mere river. When the Daily Mail visited the address, a neighbour who said she remembered Kapikanya commented, 'Not a bit surprised to be honest. And plenty more like him around here.' Meanwhile, in 2021, Kapikanya was registered as having lived at a luxury flat at Chapel House, in the exclusive St James Park area, close to the posh suburb of Didsbury in Manchester. The conman changed his name to Alex May by deed poll after returning from jail, and had the same Didsbury residence registered as a company address under this name between 2023 and 2025. Residents at the flats told of how he had seemed 'normal'. One neighbour said: 'He lived here a few years ago. I remember him coming and going. 'He seemed very normal, nothing out of the ordinary.' But this was far from the case. Kapikanya's flamboyant lifestyle was not contained to just his fancy residences. He used the money, pocketed from conducting identity theft and remortgaging victims' homes, on lavish stays at West End hotels and gambling sessions at The Ritz Hotel Casino in Mayfair, and would travel only by limousine. And despite his convictions, he was a high-flying member of society. He would meet up with councillors to discuss the regeneration of Grimsby, and was in talks to take over Notts County FC and become a majority shareholder in Grimsby Town FC, though they ultimately fell through and led to the resignation of a deputy council leader. The 57-year-old first arrived in the UK aged 14 to be adopted, but was reportedly 'assimilated into a religious cult' when it fell through. Not long after, he fell into a life of crime. He was first warned he could be removed from Britain in 1992 after he was convicted of his first crime - attempted fraud and theft. Then in 1996 he was convicted of two offences of theft and was sentenced to 21 months' imprisonment. He was also convicted of theft of a motor vehicle and sentenced to a consecutive term of 15 months' imprisonment. It was following this, in 1998, that Kapikanya was first notified he was 'liable to deportation' because of his offending. In March 2000, after serving his sentence, he lost an appeal against deportation, but no order to remove him from the country was made. The conman was then further convicted of dishonesty in 2008 and again notified of his liability to deportation. In February 2010, notice of a decision to deport him was served. On 12 March 2013, then Home Secretary Theresa May made a decision to deport him but he successfully appealed and was granted leave to remain until 15 April 2016. Undeterred, he then picked up from where he left off and launched fresh scams. In 2014, Kapikanya and a property fraudster nicknamed 'Mr Fastcash' were found guilty of having led a housing crime gang who stole luxury homes across the country and illegally used them to obtain loans. The gang worked by stealing elderly people's identities to take ownership of properties, remortgage them and pocket the cash. A total of ten homes were targeted in the £3.5m scam. Four were targeted in Worsley, Greater Manchester, one each in the villages of Hale and Malpas, Cheshire, and three properties owned by a couple in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Kapikanya had helped to recruit the team of conmen including a crooked conveyancing agent to acquire the title deeds of houses then use fake passports, driving licences and utility bills to pose as the real homeowners. The gang would go to solicitors' offices throughout Britain using the fake documents to sign over the properties to property tycoon 'Mr Fastcash' - real name Marshall Joseph - so he could take out loans with a number of financial institutions and secure mortgages against the 'stolen' homes. The victims, the true owners of the ten homes involved, knew nothing about the illegal loans secured on their homes until police uncovered the scam after the gang defaulted on secured loan repayments. The group, who had successfully gained £3.5m from their fraud and were about to obtain an addition £3.3m, were jailed in 2014 after the case was heard at Manchester Crown Court. Kapikanya sentenced to six years. The offences had been committed between 2007 and 2008. It was the eleventh time Kapikanya had been convicted of a crime in this country. At the time of his arrest, he is understood to have lived at an address on Chatsworth Road, Stretford, Manchester. The semi-detached dwelling is on the more modest side of his property portfolio. When the Daily Mail visited this address, a neighbour said: 'Yes I remember him. I used to see him and coming and going. He would let on the odd time. 'Just very normal. No flash cars or anything. 'I am shocked to hear about the fraud.' But while his victims' lives were turned upside down, having to fight to reclaim legal ownership of their own houses, Kapikanya, had been splashing the 'stolen' cash on a luxury lifestyle. This included gambling away £170,000 in a single night. He owed £100,000 for the hire of luxury cars, and arranged for the transfer of £60,000 into a casino account he held at the Ritz. He used the money to pocket £82,000 on the roulette wheels only to gamble away £8,000 later. Yet another deportation order was made on 3 February 2016 following the 2014 convictions – but he challenged it via the Court of Appeal and his case was returned to a First-Tier Tribunal (FTT). It took another seven years, until January 2023, for the case to be heard at the FTT - 25 years after he was first notified of his liability to deportation - and Kapikanya was allowed to remain based on the 'unduly harsh and very compelling' impact on his son, who was 17 at the time. He was also heard to have had a wife he had married in the time after the 2016 deportation decision. During this time between the 2016 order and the appeal being heard in the FTT, the conman, who had changed his name to Alex May, tried to broker a deal to takeover Notts County FC, acting as an 'advisor', however the bid collapsed. He was then later also exposed for having links with the ex-deputy leader of North East Lincolnshire and Grimsby Town FC majority shareholder John Fenty. Grimsby Live pictured Kapikanya, or May, sitting with Grimsby Town directors during a League Two game against Mansfield. The convicted fraudster was also found to have set up a company with Mr Fenty, with the revelations prompting the deputy council leader to resign from his position. Following the FTT decision, the Home Office took the case to the Upper Tier tribunal in April 2023 and successfully challenged the decision, leading Kapikanya to go to the Court of Appeal. And at the Court of Appeal ruling late last month, the fraudster was finally ordered to be deported by Appeal Court judges Lord Justice Bean, Lord Justice Peter Jackson and Lord Justice Baker. They wrote: '[Kapikanya] has been the subject of five decisions that he should be deported over a period of a quarter of a century. 'The system of appeals and orders for reconsideration has served him well in enabling him to remain in the UK throughout that period.' In the latest hearing, the Appeal Court heard he came to the UK in April 1983, aged 14, to be adopted. The adoption fell through and, the court heard, Kapikanya was 'assimilated into a religious cult'. Now married with a 20-year-old son, at an earlier appeal hearing Kapikanya argued he was in remission from stomach cancer and was suffering from anxiety. He was described as being 'socially and culturally integrated into the United Kingdom' with 'no familial or social links with Zambia'. Barrister Zane Malik KC argued deportation would be 'unduly harsh' on Kapikanya's son. Mr Malik added 'over and above' that the fact Kapikanya has lived in the UK for 42 years also constituted 'very compelling circumstances'. But the panel of judges said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper 'should now, at last, be allowed to put the November 2016 deportation order into effect.' Describing the impact of the property fraud at the time Kapikanya was sentenced, Ben Southam, senior crown prosecutor, said: 'The mortgages and loans were obtained against houses they did not own, and without the knowledge of the real homeowners.' The true owners 'knew nothing about the loans' and were caused 'considerable distress and inconvenience', he added.
Times
8 hours ago
- Times
Police on the scent as cheese robbery plot crumbles
Detectives hunting the gang behind the Grate Cheese Robbery, in which 22 tonnes of the world's finest cloth-bound artisan cheddar was stolen in an elaborate fraud, have arrested six middle-aged men as they stay on the scent of the suspects. A crew of con artists allegedly spent four months convincing Neal's Yard Dairy, the London wholesaler and retailer of artisan cheeses, that they were a well-known French cheese-buyer for a major distributor and supermarket, before making off with £300,000 worth of cloth-bound raw-milk two truckloads they took away 950 wheels of cheese in October last year, including 12 tonnes of Pitchfork Cheddar, nine tonnes of Westcombe Cheddar and two tonnes of Hafod Cheddar. When Neal's Yard weren't paid after delivery they quickly established that they had been conned and went to the police. They paid the three small-scale artisan cheese producers in full 'despite the significant financial blow' to themselves.A week later, detectives from the Metropolitan Police's specialist crime command arrested a 63-year-old man on suspicion of fraud by false representation and handling stolen goods. Since then news of the investigation has fallen silent as investigators sniffed out the trail of the stolen truckles. The Met has now revealed that they began arresting more suspects at the end of last year and made their latest arrest last month. The six men, aged between 37 and 63, have been arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation and handling stolen goods. A 50-year-old man has also been interviewed under six arrested suspects have been released under investigation pending further enquiries. Ben Ticehurst, the head cheesemaker at Trethowan Brothers dairy, which makes Pitchfork Cheddar ten miles from the Somerset town that gives it name to the cheese, said it was 'very heartening to think that even if we have pushed it to the back of our minds, the police are digging in and finding out what has gone on'. Ticehurst added: 'Thankfully no one was harmed [during the theft] but for any of the small producers it could have been game over if Neal's Yard hadn't taken the financial hit and paid us.' 'Despite that, it will still have had a huge impact on their ability to help small cheesemakers like us, with the incredible amount of work they put into their staff helping cheesemakers with incredibly technical things so we can make the best cheeses we can.' After the initial arrest of the 63-year-old man on October 30 last year, things went quiet until a flurry of activity in the New Year. A 37-year-old man was arrested on January 2, followed by a 45-year-old man on January 13 and another 63-year-old man on January 21. A 57-year-old man was arrested on April 30 and detectives arrested a 54-year-old man on July 3 and interviewed the 50-year-old man under caution on July 4. The alleged con started with an email to Neal's Yard in July 2024, from someone with a seemingly deep knowledge of cheese, requesting 950 cheddar truckles, or uncut wheels of cheese. • Can you freeze cheese? 34 cheese questions answered by an expert Over the course of several months the perpetrators allegedly impersonated a reputable distributor well known within the European cheese industry. An elaborate contract was drawn up, outlining detailed payment terms, and conversations with the alleged representative demonstrated a deep understanding of the sector, further lending credibility to the scheme. At the end of September, a haulier organised by the alleged fraudsters collected half the cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy's warehouse in Bermondsey, southeast London. The second delivery was made by a haulier arranged by Neal's Yard itself, who was instructed to drop the cheese off at a warehouse in north London. The haulier who carried out the delivery reported that the warehouse was 'not a typical food warehouse'. Neal's Yard was supposed to be paid within a week of the deliveries being made, which is typical for the food industry, but by the start of October they had heard nothing from the supposed they contacted the legitimate distributor, who they believed had made the order, they quickly established that they had been conned. The cheeses could conceivably be stored for up to 18 months, at the right temperature, without deterioration but as soon as they are cut they will dry and need to be eaten. The cheese producers believe the thieves may have tried to smuggle the cheese into the Middle East or Russia, away from the watchful gaze of the international artisan cheesemaking community, to avoid detection. News of the fraud, first dubbed the 'grate cheese robbery' by Jamie Oliver, made headlines around the world and shone a spotlight on the world of expensive artisan produce. Ticehurst believes the public were initially shocked that someone would value cheese highly enough to organise an elaborate deception to steal it, but he thinks their produce should be regarded in the same way as fine wines or sports Cheddar is made by hand in small batches and costs about £1,200 per 25kg truckle. After its first year of production it won Best British Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in 2019 and was judged the fourth best cheese on the be considered traditional Somerset clothbound cheddar, it must be made by hand from raw cow's milk, with calf rennet and local starter cultures used in the process.
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Police rescue man trapped behind waterfall in California
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