Four held over attempt to ‘con’ octogenarian

By Lydiah Nyawira

Nyeri, Kenya: A suspected scheme to con an octogenarian Sh45,000 was thwarted by a bank manager in Nyeri Thursday.

Four suspects were arrested over the incident.

The elderly man said he had been lured by the suspects to withdraw all the money from his bank account so that he could be prayed for.

Joseph Kairu Waweru, 90, had been accompanied to Equity Bank in Nyeri by two men to make the withdrawal.

Mzee Waweru, a resident of Endarasha in Kieni, told The Standard that a smartly dressed man approached him and offered to “pray” for him moments after he had deposited money in his account at another branch of Equity Bank.

He said the man introduced him to a woman and another man in a grey saloon car parked outside the bank. They drove him to an Equity Bank branch in the town where one of them accompanied him to the teller.

Fortunately for Waweru, he did not have identification documents and was referred to the branch manager.

Equity Bank branch manager John Mwangi said he listened to Waweru’s story and why he wanted to withdraw his money a few minutes after he had deposited the amount and became suspicious.

The manager said the man denied asking Waweru for money and on further questioning he bolted out of the bank.

An administration police officer who guards the bank was forced to shoot in the air to apprehend the suspect.

The two suspects were frog-marched into the bank manager’s office as police arrived at the scene.

Mwangi said as the suspects were being questioned, two women turned up seeking to bail out the pair and they too were arrested.