A WHITE-COLLAR and highly intelligent fraudster who has defrauded a number of rural banks and district assemblies throughout the country has been arrested by the Asamankese police after a good intelligence networking.

He is currently in police cells pending prosecution, after he was initially put before an Asamankese court on provisional charges of defrauding by false pretence, stealing and using forged documents.

35-year-old Frank Kojo Eshun was arrested at Suhum last Friday by the Asamankese police, while he was travelling from Elubo in the Western region to Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region to take up another job with the Wenchi National Health Insurance Scheme.

He made a stop-over at Suhum where the police grabbed him.

Eshun is said to have defrauded a number of banks including the Anum, South Akim and Mponua rural banks, as well as a number of district assemblies in the Central, Eastern and Western regions.

He is on record to have jumped bails on several occasions and used all cunning ways to evade police arrest.

He was nabbed as a result of a collaborated intelligence networking between some security agencies, as he was said to have been trailed from the Western region through to the Central region and finally to the Eastern region where he is wanted for being a prime suspect in a dubious withdrawal of an amount of GH¢20,750 from the HIPC account of the West Akim Municipal Assembly which was lodged at the Suhum branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

The police also arrested three other accomplices, one of whom is a signature expert and are helping in police investigations.

Moments after Eshun was arrested, calls came from Cape Coast in the Central region, Obuasi in the Ashanti region, Juaboso in the Western region and Nkawkaw in the Eastern region that he was on the wanted lists of the police in those towns.

Frank Kojo Eshun, who has been disguising himself and using different names, told the Asamankese police that he was a farmer but DAILY GUIDE’s intelligence revealed that he was a banker with a rural bank and was sacked for engaging in dubious transactions.

He is believed to have had agents in most of the banks he has defrauded.

Currently, the police in Nkawkaw are on his trail after he managed to jump bail last year in a similar case where he was standing trial at circuit court for defrauding the Mponua Rural Bank to the tune of over GH¢30,000.

According to DAILY GUIDE’s intelligence, Frank Kojo Eshun was living an ostentatious life and owned a series of cars. He also had a lavish wedding at a popular church in Accra about four years ago.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the West Akim Municipal Assembly, Seth Otchere, on Tuesday told reporters that Frank Kojo Eshun came to the assembly as a national service person, with a fake University of Ghana certificate introducing him as James Owusu Mensah, an MSc student with accounting option.

He explained that he was subsequently attached to the finance office of the assembly because of his alleged accounting background, for his national service.

According to the MCE, he had accomplices who managed to forge signatures of the district coordinating director, the district finance officer and the MCE himself to engage in such 'underground' business.

He said on July 13, through the vigilance of the employees of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) at Asamankese, an agent of Eshun, Edward Osei Owusu, who was going to withdraw an amount of GH¢506 from the HIPC account on behalf of the assembly, was arrested.

He said after the arrest of Edward Osei Owusu, Frank, who was known at the assembly as James Owusu Mensah, ran away and never reported to work.

“The GCB bank officials were very professional after they detected that the voter ID card Edward was carrying bore the name of one Matthew Wood but with a picture of Edward and therefore called to verify from the assembly whether there was such a transaction on behalf of the assembly,” he said, adding that Edward was immediately arrested.

He pointed out that after the scandal, it was detected at the end of the month that the same syndicate had managed to withdraw an amount of GH¢20,750 from the Suhum branch of ADB where the assembly had another HIPC account.

He warned that there were such unscrupulous people who were infiltrating organizations with fake certificates to dupe public institutions.

He pleaded with the National Security to step up their intelligence work to uncover the syndicate and arrest such ‘dubious’ people in the system who are trying to take advantage of public institutions to siphon public funds.

“I want the National Service Secretariat and educational institutions to probe prospective students and applicants well to avoid such incidents in the future,” he said.