UK national convicted in bank forgery case

The court of additional city sessions judge PB Desai, on Wednesday, awarded a UK national, Wilfred Lousis three-and-half-years imprisonment in connection with a bank forgery case and for living in the country without having proper documents.

The accused was arrested by city police in January 2008, when he had gone to purchase gold from a city-based jeweller in Navrangpura. According to public prosecutor Naresh Dahiya, Lousis was booked under various section of Indian Penal Code including 420, 522 and Foreign Act 14(A-B).

As per case details, Lousis had gone to a jeweller in Navrangpura to buy gold and had also purchased gold worth Rs1.30lakh through six credit cards, including one HDFC credit card. He paid Rs28,000 from his HDFC card, while his five other cards were outdated. While Lousis was making his purchases, the jeweller received a call from HDFC bank main branch in Chennai that the credit card used for payment bore an international bank’s pincode number, which had instructed the bank to stop payment.

Later, the Navrangpura police was informed about the fact and Lousis was arrested. During investigation it was revealed that he had come to Ahmedabad from Chennai and was living in India illegally as the stamps on his passport too were fakes.

Dahiya also stated that during investigation the FSL also came to know that the six credit cards, which Lousis was using, were of international banks and their data too were fakes.