The police are on the heels of a young man who lied to authorities at the Takoradi Government Hospital that he was a doctor, using it to rob unsuspecting patients of several items.
According to a 3News.com report, the young man, whose name has been given as Jude, used his access to patients at the hospital, popularly known as The European Hospital, to convince them to hand over their phones to him for safekeeping.
The report said that Jude had presented a fake attachment letter from the University of Ghana Medical School to the hospital administration seeking an internship as a junior doctor, which he eventually was allowed to do.
In the process, after being there for a few days and assisting some senior medical doctors, he devised this strategy to rob the patients.
“He collected their phones and told them thieves had been coming to the hospital to attack patients so the phones would be kept safely for them. He also convinced them to unlock the phones since someone might urgently call them,” a source to the news website told them.
The report continued that Jude was able to further use his access to the unlocked phones of the unsuspecting patients to communicate with some of their close contacts.
With that, he started making monetary demands of them under the pretext that the situation was urgent.
“He was posing as the patients whilst using their phones and told their contacts that they needed money for medical care. The people he contacted thought they were chatting with the original owners of the phone and some of them sent an undisclosed amount of money to him,” the sources added, the report said.
A Nigerian woman who was one of Jude’s victims was also robbed of a lot of money through her close contacts, with the help of another Nigerian woman that the fake doctor clandestinely used to accomplish his design.
According to the report, the fake doctor, in an attempt to get through the Nigerian patient’s contacts in a convincing way, employed the services of a Nigerian prostitute in Vienna City, Takoradi.
After establishing contact with her following their intimacy business, Jude convinced the sex worker (who is referred to as Bella – not her real name) to help me accomplish his nefarious agenda.
“I was at Vienna on Wednesday when the suspect walked towards me and asked how much I would charge for a night. I told him he would pay GH¢600 but he asked for a reduction and we all agreed on GH¢500. He then opted we go to my place which I obliged because I would take my money afterwards. We had a shower and did whatever we had to do. In the morning, he asked that I give him my mobile money registered number because someone would be sending money to him. He was holding four phones and calls started coming in from Nigeria, he asked me to speak to them in my language,” Bella is said to have narrated.
Along the way, Bella said she started suspecting something fishy, the report added.
While still playing along, she said that when things got too far, she threatened him that she would report him to the police if he did not come clean with her, but unfortunately, Jude absconded before she could make that move.
“He asked me to tell all the callers that I was sick at the hospital and needed the money urgently, which I did but I later realized he was up to something so I started asking him questions and he told me he was into internet business and the SIM card was for a friend. He later asked me to withdraw the money for him but I denied. Later, I gave him part of the money and threatened to hand him over to the police if he did not reveal what he was up to me. He unfortunately outsmarted me and absconded.
“When he left, some of the victims including a pastor of one of the patients called me and they came to my lodge. I sent them back their money. He also left an iPhone, a bag, and a laptop here; I have handed them over to the hospital authorities,” she is said to have indicated.
But more interesting is how Jude also played a pastor of the Assemblies of God Church he was fellowshipping with at Takoradi.
The report said that the fake doctor, while in Takoradi, was accommodated at the mission house of the Holy Hill Assemblies of God Church located at Mankessim White House - the same place he had, apparently, given his life to Jesus.
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Apostle Jerry, who heads the church, expressed his shock at the situation particularly because he imagined the suspect as a ‘saint.’
“He came and narrated a very sad story to me. He said he is a pharmacist by profession and had escaped from Sierra Leone where he was being sought for, for giving a medicine that killed a patient and needed a place to lay his head. I even helped him in drafting an application letter to the Takoradi Hospital and he had the job, he even came to testify in an open church. I had no knowledge he was fake until I received a call that he had absconded and his phones were switched off,” he added.
The police at Takoradi are currently investigating the matter, while Jude remains on the run.
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