A German, identified as
Manfred Bachmann, 58, has been arrested for allegedly stealing a total of sh82m
from a city businessman. It is common to be stopped by a man or woman who
allegedly picked up diamonds, gold, or any other mineral and wants to take it
to the owner without being found out by the public or risk arrest. According to
the Ugandan police, Manfred is behind these men and women who sometimes end up
stealing a huge amount of money from the victim.
The Kampala Metropolitan
spokesman, while addressing journalists yesterday about the matter said that
Manfred used to speak to the victims of the sale as a way of convincing them to
buy the ‘minerals’ then later take them to Manfred himself to buy them. However,
after ‘buying’ the ‘mineral’, Manfred switches off his phone and the middlemen,
whom he often used disappear with the money.
Manfred has a wife to whom he
is legally married to with children, he lives in Bunga. He was arrested
alongside the men he uses as middlemen, they are Henry Byekya and Modric
Mugisha who are also said supply the minerals.
During the press conference, the
police spokesman informed journalists that Manfred not only has this new case,
but also several other cases which mount up to 10 in which he has conned people
into giving him large amounts of money in a similar manner. “His files had been
forwarded to the Criminal Investigations Department. The police will cross
check one again before the total amount of money Bachman has conned can be
revealed. Manfred Bachman has five passports all of which he holds. They reveal
that he was born in Kassel, Germany on April 4, 1954. He claims he is a former
soldier retired from the Ugandan forces after serving the army honorably.
He also owns visa bank cards
under the name of Manfred Walter, they are 8 in total. In addition, he owns 50
foreign and local sim cards which are all active according to the police. He
also had 10 phones, all of which are suspected to be used in his operations of
conning people of their money.
The business man who was conned
of the sh82m narrated of how Manfred robbed him of the money saying he was
approached by Manfred and asked him to buy a mineral which he identified as
tanzanite for sh82m. After being told an expatriate was available who would buy
the mineral at double price, the businessman, whose name was not revealed
realized he would benefit a lot from the deal. “I calculated and saw a profit
of sh82m. It promoted me to withdraw money from my bank account and pay, I
later called Mugisha but his phone was already switched off. That is when I
realized that I had been conned and reported it to the police,” he said.
Police later tracked the
numbers which had been used by the con-men and pretended they wanted to buy the
mineral; they were trapped and later arrested from a hotel found in Kansanga,
Mantrass Hotel
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