450 logbooks recovered at a cybercafé in crackdown targeting rogue NTSA officials » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 18 – The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has unearthed a logbook racket involving the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) officials at a Nairobi cybercafé.

Detectives recovered 450 motor vehicle logbooks at a cybercafé in Nairobi’s Ngara area in an operation which also saw three men arrested.

The DCI said in a statement Friday that motor vehicle logbooks bearing original NTSA seals and assorted motor vehicle registration documents were recovered following a tip off received via their FichuakwaDCI hotline.

“The cybercafé reminiscent of a publishing house had been turned into a motor vehicle registration center, where an application for a logbook takes a few hours before it is delivered by an insider from NTSA,” the DCI said.

“The mastermind of the syndicate working in cahoots with officials at the country’s motor vehicle registration body, also illegally develops affidavits and commissions them, before they’re sent to contacts at NTSA for forced transfer of motor vehicles,” they added.

The DCI agents also impounded a vehicle with tampered chassis number during the operation.

The agency linked the syndicate to some crooked officials in NTSA.

“To aid in the expeditious change of motor vehicle engines, the detectives established that the syndicate develops falsified importation documents from a renowned car dealer and ETR receipts, making it one of the most elaborate motor vehicles scams in recent times,” the DCI added.

The operation was conducted by the detectives drawn from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau augmented by sleuths from the operations branch based at Nairobi regional command.

The agency said that the suspects were being held for questioning as detectives intensify a manhunt for the suspects believed to be working at the NTSA.

The arrest came a few hours after four suspects were apprehended for forgery of vehicle logbooks and fraudulently obtaining credit using the motor vehicle document.

The agency said that unscrupulous businesses men working with employees in money lending institutions have “devised a new way of defrauding unsuspecting Kenyans and financial institutions without breaking a sweat.”

“The thugs who have turned into overnight millionaires have built a shadowy network of hard-to-trace individuals, incorporating crooked officials at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA),” the DCI said.

The DCI said that the four suspects will answer to charges of, obtaining credit by false pretenses contrary to Section 316(a) of the Penal Code, forgery, issuing of bad cheques, and fraudulent disposition of mortgaged goods contrary to Section 291 as read with Section 36 of the Penal Code.