Supreme Court lawyer duped of Rs 13Lakh by UK woman, others

New Delhi: A Supreme Court lawyer has filed an FIR against four persons, one from London and others from Mumbai, for allegedly duping him of around Rs 13 lakhs.

In his police complaint, he alleged a syndicate, posing as custom officers in Mumbai and a businessman in UK, had cheated him. In February this year, the British national told advocate Koshy Jacob that she would visit India on a business trip.

Advocate Jacob alleged in his police complaint that Claire Harison, a resident of UK, claiming  to be the MD of UK Property Investors. She had once taken legal advice from Mr Jacob over telephone and also paid the charges. Since then the two often talked to each other over the phone.

On February 10, she told Mr Jacob that she would reach Mumbai from Heathrow on February 14 and the next day morning fly to New Delhi from Mumbai.

“On February 15, Mr Jacob received a call from one Renuka, posing as a custom official. She told him that Ms Harison has been detained at Mumbai airport as she was carrying £3.5 lakh.  

She asked him to pay  custom charges of Rs 35,500 to get a clearance for the money brought into India by her. Later, he he was told to pay Rs 77,500 for security and that it was refundable.

On February 19, one U sha D. Menon posing as an RBI officer, foreign money exchange department, called him and asked him to pay Rs 2.65 lakh as RBI foreign currency conversion charges, which he paid.

On February 20 she sent an SMS and took his email and other details and told him now Ms Harison’s full amount was transferred into his account online.

When he opened his email, he received an OTP. Mr Jacob called Ms Menon and she asked him to pay Rs 6 lakh for currency conversion, which he paid.

Later one of his friend’s checked the RBI site and email and told that the above email id and websites are fake. He filed a complaint in Tilak Marg police station.