An 82-year-old woman was scammed of TT$284,851 which she paid into various bank accounts in response to phone calls from a man pretending to be her God Son in July 2019. And, a 48-year-old Nigerian national, Charleson Obasoanya, (in the photo above)who lives at El Socorro,  was charged on Friday with “larceny trick” as well as money laundering. The charge of larceny trick involves sums totalling TT$128,500 and two counts of money laundering of sums totalling TT$48,000.

When he appeared before Magistrate Adia Mohammed in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court, on Monday Obasoanya was remanded into custody and the matter adjourned to tomorrow, May 20th.

The 82-year-old victim told police that in July 2019, she responded to a series of foreign phone calls and messages from a man pretending to be her long lost God-son from the United Kingdom. She then proceeded to make payments to various bank accounts, including one account held in the name of a business. Staff at the bank took note of the deposits made by the victim and informed her that she was possibly a victim of a scam.

Officers of the Fraud Squad arrested a male suspect at a bank in Port of Spain, last Wednesday while he was attempting to withdraw TT$50,000 from the business account into which the woman had deposited the funds.