Men of the State Intelligent Bereau (SIB), are currently investigating a 50-year-old pastor who connived with a popular Lagos car dealer (names withheld) to falsify documents and defrauded a new generation Bank.
Vanguard reports that Pastor Babatunde Olusegun, a customer of the bank collected a vehicle loan facility sometime last year. It was agreed that he would pay back the money installmentally in three years. However, eight months later, he stopped servicing the loan. The bank however requested to get the car back since he could no longer continue the installment payments. Pastor Olusegun later claimed that the car, Toyota Corolla 2008, was stolen at gunpoint, not knowing that car has a tracking device. During investigations, police officers tracked the car in question to a car mart (names withheld) in Ikeja.
When the car was recovered, the car dealer was invited to the State police command, where he revealed that his friend, one Mr. Taiwo, brought the vehicle to him to help him sell. Whwn the certain Mr Taiwo was interrogated, it was revealed that another bank, Diamond Bank, bought the vehicle for him via a car loan facility, two years ago, with documents to back up his claim.
It however got knotty as to how the tracking device of one bank installed in a vehicle given get another client of another bank. Detectives later found out that the suspect, Olusegun and Mr Taiwo were friends. It was learned that after paying N1.2m equity and meeting all necessary requirements for accessing the car loan from the bank, the bank sent Olusegun to their official car agent to pick up a Toyota Corolla worth N3.5m.
However, instead of picking up a new car, Olusegun took his friend Taiwo’s car to the car mart, he and the car dealer forged new documents and plate number in his name for the vehicle, to make the bank believe that he has picked up the vehicle. He presented the falsified vehicle documents bearing his name to the bank which then paid the car dealer N3.5m that was shared between the dealer and Mr. Olusegun. He later returned the vehicle back to his friend.
Vanguard gathered that when detectives went to Olusegun’s apartment to arrest him, he reportedly denied that he is not the one stating that the person with the name is his brother-in-law who has gone out. The case is still being investigated by the police to determine the culpability of the car dealer and the bank staff in the fraud before charging the case to court.