Three arrested for pension fraud
Three suspects have been arrested for allegedly defrauding the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to the tune of GH¢4,264.68, being claims of a contributor to the trust, Samuel Biney, who died in April 2006.
The suspects, identified as Mary Intarmah, a trader; Alfred Ansah, a court bailiff, and Bondzie Adu Godfrey, a driver, are alleged to have presented a birth certificate and letters of administration to SSNIT, posing as the wife, family head and son, respectively, of the deceased to claim his benefits.
A fourth suspect, Rose Amedetorwu, is on the run.
The three suspects are to appear before the Tema Circuit Court ‘A’ on June 21, 2012.
The suspects went into hiding for over a year but were arrested at their hideouts in Ashaiman.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Tema, a SSNIT investigator , Ms Emelia Sebil, said the suspects were friends who lived at Ashaiman.
Ms Sebil said after the death of Biney, Mary, who was the girl friend of the deceased, conspired with Ansah and Bondzie to present Rose Amedetorwu as the deceased’s daughter while they forged the necessary SSNIT documents which could enable them to obtain the deceased’s benefits.
She said the suspects forged documents in the names of Ebenezer Biney and his three children and presented them to SSNIT to claim the benefits.
Ms Sebil said in May, 2010, Mr De-Graft Kofi Baah of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority filed a SSNIT customer complaint form when he was told by SSNIT that his relative, Samuel Biney’s benefit had been collected by his children.
Further investigations by SSNIT revealed that pictures presented by the alleged fraudsters were not identical to the pictures of the deceased’s biological children.
According to the SSNIT investigator, the case was, therefore, reported to the Tema Regional Police for investigations and the arrest of the impersonators.
She said it took over one year for the police to unravel the location of the suspects who were smoked out of their hideouts in Ashaiman.
Ms Sebil said Mary Intarmah who was the conduit for the fraudulent action was the first to be arrested but the fourth suspect, Rose Amedetorwu, who posed as the daughter of the deceased was on the run and has been declared wanted.
She said the suspects who were immediately arraigned before court admitted the offence and were asked to refund the amount to the court.
Ms Sebil said the suspects had refunded Gh¢4,000 leaving a balance of Gh¢268.68 to be paid but that would not absolve them of criminal offence.
Source: Daily Graphic