Travel Agents arrested for passport fraud

Two officials of a travel agency in Accra have been arrested by the Police Criminal Investigation Department for selling a client?s passport containing a United States Visa to another person for 12,000 dollars.

Gabriel Nyebribi, 31, Director of the agency, and Omar Bahandin, 40, described as a facilitator, were arrested after a complaint was lodged with the police.

Briefing the TIMES, Deputy Director of CID, Patrick Ampewuah, said the complaint, Albert Cliff, a student of the St Francis Training College at Hohoe in the Volta Region won a US visa lottery which was facilitated by the agency.

He said the suspects then demanded 5,000 dollars from Cliff to process his travel documents, but as he could not readily provide the money, they seized his passport.

Mr Ampewuah said Cliff together with his parents later reported the case to the police after efforts to get the passport proved futile. Police later conducted a search at the offices of the agency and found the passport but with another person?s photograph embossed in it.