British Man Arrested• For Sim Card Fraud

BUSTED! Mike Andrew Hayward (left) and Innocent Kojo Amenz

A 64-year-old Briton, Mike Andrew Hayward, has been arrested together with one Innocent Kojo Amenz for SIM box-related fraud, causing some GH¢9.2 million loss to telecommunications operators in the country.

They were arrested on Tuesday August 30, 2011 at Sakumono near Tema in a joint operation by officers of the Documents and Visa Fraud Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Anti-Fraud Taskforce of the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Through the nefarious activities of the two and their cronies, international calls were usually diverted, thereby depriving government of revenue which would have otherwise gone to it and telecom operators.

Items such as two hyper media SIM box equipment with 160 SIM cards slot each and countless number of SIM cards- Vodafone, 50 percent; Airtel, 20 percent; MTN, 20 percent; and Tigo, 10 percent- were found on them.

The team found the two in a sophisticated operating centre with an automatic UPS and automatic standby generating plant around the Sakumono Community Hospital, from where they operated 24/7.

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The SIM box equipment and the SIM cards retrieved from the suspects

According to Prosper Agblor, the activities of the two affected the communications providers, subscribers and the police.

Such activities rendered police investigations fruitless as callers were not easily traceable since the numbers were traced to the SIM box instead of the original caller.

He said his outfit had since May 2011 put the two suspects under surveillance.

The Minister for Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, said as soon as Parliament resumed, he would ensure that a bill on SIM card registration would be tabled.

He said the law would compel telecom users to register their SIM cards before using them.

He said the state and telecom providers lost an amount of GH¢2.3 million per month, resulting in the total loss of GH¢9.2 million in the four months the suspects had been operating.

The minister stressed that his outfit would ensure that the international gateway process was not abused.

He urged the police to deal with any offender as the law should, stressing that the need for prosecution to serve as deterrent to others was imperative.

The Communications Minister also lauded the efforts of the police and advocated that the NCA donate some amount of its revenue to the CID to help them undertake such high-profile investigations.

The Director of Corporate Integrity and Risk at Vodafone, Ashley Ratclifte, explained how SIM box fraudsters operated, calling on other telecom providers to help fight such fraudsters by being vigilant.

By Rocklyn Antonio