Suspects who were arrested in Kampala Yesterday

The Police have burst a racket involved in forging logbooks and driving permits just weeks after unearthing a scam in fake car number plates. Four suspects, including the wife of a UPDF officer, have been netted in the latest operation. Security forces also seized computers, scanners and other machines from several printing companies at City House on William Street in central Kampala. The suspects, who were paraded before the press yesterday, were also accused of forging academic transcripts, ministerial documents, identity cards and bank cheques. They were identified as Grace Kemitovu, alias Josephine Namaganda, the managing director of Trend Saloon and wife to a UPDF captain, Drake Mpindi of Maganjo, Mike Wasswa and Joseph Ssekambwa. The Police are still hunting for two prime suspects who took off during the operation, according to Henry Kalulu, the deputy Police spokesperson for Metropolitan Kampala. The equipment seized, the Police said, was used to print URA documents, logbooks and transcripts as well as produce stamps and seals. The detectives also recovered forged Uganda Examinations Board academic transcripts for ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, diploma and degree transcripts for Makerere, Nkumba and Kyambogo universities plus four other tertiary institutions across the country. Others items found included tax receipts bearing the stamp of URA and the forged signature of Commissioner General Allen Kagina. In addition, the Police recovered receipts and pay slips of various banks, documents of several ministries, media organisations and finished identity cards of employees of several companies. Kalulu said the suspects were part of a bigger group involved in forging all sorts of documents using specialised machines. One of the groups, he explained, issued forged logbooks meant for micro-finance institutions and money-lending companies, presenting vehicles with fake number-plates as securities to obtain loans. “In one incident, the accused conned a money-lender of sh5.5 million,” Kalulu said. Suspected forgeries included three logbooks of vehicles bearing registration numbers UAK 659D (Toyota Corona), UAL 590M (Toyota Nadia) and UAL 783S (Toyota Land Cruiser). Kalulu said the suspects also issued cheques with forged signatures and stamps. One of the cheques shown to the media was purported to have been issued by Stanbic Bank, IPS branch. Mpindi, one of the suspects, demonstrated before the press how they operated the machines and how they sealed each document to appear genuine. He, however, revealed that the scam involved many people, including employees of import and manufacturing companies, who he said sell some of the documents, like logbooks and permits. “Though we make documents, we also have genuine ones which we buy from people who smuggle them out of big offices. I advise the Police to tighten the noose even at the source where we get these items,” Mpindi said in his confession. The suspects, according to the Police, will be taken to court and charged with several offences, including fraud, obtaining money by false pretence and uttering false documents.