Accra, Aug. 30, GNA - The Police in Accra have arrested a British citizen and his Ghanaian accomplice alleged to be involved in illegal termination of international calls.

They were diverting inbound international telephone calls to make them appear as local calls, leading to the loss of more than 9.2 million Cedis to the State and telecommunication operators. The suspects are a 64-year-old British, Mike Andrew Hanyward, a computer programmer and analyst and the Ghanaian Innocent Kojo Amenz, 28.

They were arrested during a joint operation by personnel of the Criminal Investigation Department and anti-fraud task force of National Communications Authority (NCA).

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Prosper Agblor, Director of CID, briefing journalists in Accra on Tuesday said the Police had mounted surveillance over operations of the suspects since May, this year.

He said they undertook their activities from a sophisticated operating centre with automatic UPS and an automatic stand by generating plant around Sakumono Community Hospital. During their arrest, two hyper media Sim Box equipment each having 160 sim card slots and large quantities of sim cards of Vodafone, Airtel, MTN amd Tigo were found at the premises. DCOP Agblor asked the public to provide information on such nefarious activities that led to the loss of revenue to government to enable the Police bring the culprits to justice. Mr Haruna Iddrissu, Minister of Communications, lauded the cooperation between NCA and the Police and pledged government's support for efforts to stem such practices in the bud. Mr Asley Ratcliffe, Director Corporate Integrity and Risk, Vodafone, said the illegal termination of calls had the effect of affecting the call quality of subscribers and revenue of operators. He said there was the need for effective collaboration among operators, the Police, NCA and the public to stop such negative practices.

The suspects are currently in police custody whilst investigations continue.