Bogus foreign education agent nabbed after nine years

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Parents spend a lot of money on a child's education. After completion of secondary education, children are financially supported by parents in their higher educational pursuits. This requires thousands of rupees or perhaps hundreds of thousands of rupees in when children are sent overseas for their higher education.

This picture shows the success of graduates where after graduation in the West, graduates send their cares away and their caps are seen floating in the air. This is what would-be graduates in Sri Lanka expected and believed when they registered with the bogus education registration office down Melbourne Avenue, Bambalapitiya. They expected to leave for foreign universities in the West shortly but their dreams were shattered in mid air

Except for a few upper class families who could afford this amount, it is no secret that middle class families send their children to various reputed foreign universities and colleges under severe financial strain.

Many children apply for overseas education through foreign education agents who find suitable institutions for the fees they are willing to pay. Some agents even charge money to apply for admission to these foreign colleges or universities as well as to get a valid visa issued by the embassy or High Commission of the country they are willing to study. Millions of rupees have to be paid to these agents to meet the required amount of fees as well as for the services rendered to be placedin a reputed academy.

It is not the first time that we have heard that such agents have duped parents and students applying for foreign education. Bogus foreign education agents who cheat and take large sums of money from students have been reported through out the recent past where many have been apprehended by law enforcement authorities while some have given the slip and escaped with the money.

Bogus

A case in point where a bogus foreign education agent who disappeared in 2005 stealing a large amount of money was arrested by the police when he returned to the country last month.

Abdul Azak Mohamed Rimaz was a 30-year-old youth who masterminded the bogus foreign education facilitating agency ten years ago.

A resident of Mawilmada, Kandy Azak began a facilitating agency in Melbourn Avenue in Bambalapitiya in 2004 under the name G T International. Azak promoted his business as being a facilitating service to send students to the United Kingdom through various advertisements in newspapers.

Running an office in Melbourne Avenue Bambalaptiya would at no point of time raise suspicions among would-be applicants as the area is highly residential and one would not bat an eyelid that the agency was a bogus one.

The culprit has well and truly duped applicants into believing that the agency was an accepted one. Apart from consultancy services on how to apply for a university or a college in England and how to prepare documents to apply for a visa, Azak had registered students to his agency and had applied to academies on behalf of the applicants as well.

Exorbitant

For consultancy and the application process, Azak had charged between exorbitant amounts ranging from Rs.200, 000 to Rs.500, 000 from a student applicant promising them a university in England. Within a year, he had registered a number of applicants from whom he had charged various amounts to facilitate services.

When this was progressing, Azak had suddenly disappeared from the area. To the utter consternation and shock of the applicants, they found that the office of G T International had been shut down with no notice. Students and family members from various parts of the country who constantly visited the place realised that they had been duped by a cheater who had escaped with their hard- earned money and not to mention the shattered dreams of their children.

Many applicants lodged complaints with the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau that they had paid various amounts to the bogus agent seeking foreign education. The cases were reported in 2005 where the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau official launched a thorough investigation to find the missing agent. Their initial check with the Bandaranaike International

Airport revealed that a person by the name of the missing agent had left the country for UK few weeks ago. The Department of Immigration and Emigration also confirmed to the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau that Abdul Azak Mohamed Rimaz had left the country for England. The bogus agent had fled with cash amounting to Rs.8, 200, 000 (eight million) collected from the applicants.

The CFIB locked up all the cases in a cupboard as being a lost cause as it was practically impossible to conduct any further investigations. Disillusioned applicants and their parents returned losing their hard earned money and the students with a blurred future. Time went by until February 14 when the Immigration and Emigration authorities at the Bandaranaike International Airport made a startling discovery.

The bogus agent who fled the country in 2005 had returned. Azak's name and passport details which had been blacklisted in the system as a wanted criminal was now alerted to immigration officials at the BIA counters upon his return to the country.

Custody

He was immediately taken into the custody of the Immigration and Emigration Department and was handed over to the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau(CFIB). The CFIB reopened the case files and informed all the applicants who had already lodged complaints with them nine years ago .

The present Director CFIB SSP Ananda Alwis told the Sunday Observer *that the officials also made a startling revelation that the suspect who left the country in 2005 on a Sri Lankan passport had returned to the country as a British national with a UK passport.

The suspect was interrogated at length and the officials learnt that he had entered the UK as a fresh student seeking higher education and the money he brought in had helped him immensely to gain his visa. During his period in England the suspect had obtained permanent residency as well a British passport by becoming a UK citizen.

Duped

The CFIB had received 23 complaints against Azak during 2005, 2006 and 2007 and the police believe that there are more people who were duped by the bogus agent that had lodged complaints in their local police stations. The suspect was produced in courts and was released on bail.

However the case became controversial when the CFIB learnt that the suspect who was on bail was planning another scheme to flee the country again by manipulating witnesses. It was revealed that Azak was trying to reimburse certain amounts of money he duped from a few applicants, in the presence of a judge and to get acquitted and to return to the UK as soon as possible. A former Deputy Inspector General of Police now turned lawyer was appearing for Azak and was reportedly assisting him to launch the new get-away plan.

Re-arrested

The CFIB learnt that the agent was ready to reimburse the money of one applicant who was asked to come to the said lawyer's office in Nawala. When the applicant went to receive the money, the CFIB re-arrested he suspect and later produced in Number 03 Courtroom of Hulftsdorp, Colombo.

Following this revelation the Colombo Fraud Bureau received several more complaints related to the case where the suspect had obtained money from students promising foreign education. Further investigations revealed that the suspect was the son of a popular incense stick manufacturer in the country.

Following this case the Colombo Fraud Investigations Bureau request the public to be extra vigilant about foreign education facilitating agents when entrusting money. The police also request the public to complain about such bogus operatives who engage in unlawful activities. Although the culprit was apprehended after a long time and even if he is prepared to reimburse the money that he duped, the monetary value of the payment has increased treble fold during the past nine years.