Police have broken up a ring that has been forging and selling receipt books of a local travel agency, Kigali Bus Services (KBS).

Police arrested seven suspects, all in Kigali, alleged to be leaders of the group.

Supt. Modeste Mbabazi, the Police spokesperson for the City of Kigali, said the criminal act was brought to their attention early last month, when KBS management filed a complaint.

"Investigations were immediately launched in which we first arrested three people, all employees of a print press and stationary – Papeterie Duplicaterie – in the city centre and recovered some of the forged receipt books, before arresting four others later,” Mbabazi said.

The latest arrest was on Saturday when Police raided a house in Munanira Cell of Nyakabanda Sector, also in Nyarugenge, where they arrested a one Steven Kamanzi, 25, and recovered 775 forged receipt books and machines he was allegedly using to make them.

Among the seven suspects so far in Police custody include three employees of KBS.

One of the employees, Emmanuel Ngabo, who has been heading the operations and inspection of the travel agency, is believed to be the mastermind of the fraud.

"When we arrested the first group of stationary dealers, they led us to their accomplices inside the travel agency, but investigations are still underway to identify and arrest all those connected to this criminal ring,” Mbabazi said.

According to Charles Ngarambe, the executive chairperson of KBS, the criminal act was haunting the business and they were at risk of winding down the business.

Incurring losses

The travel agency, which started in 2007, has a total of 116 buses, but Ngarambe said the issue of forged receipts forced them to ground about 50 of the fleet after "operating in losses and couldn’t even afford to pay the workers.”

He said even when they added new 55 buses to try to save the situation; matters only got worse.

"Investigations started when one of our committed employees tipped us after she was approached by individuals attempting to lure her into the fraudulent activity so that she could buy the forged receipts from them,” Ngarambe said.

"We first encountered this issue in February last year when one of our employees, was suspected and arrested. Around that time, I had a trip to China and l left the responsibility to follow up the case to Ngabo, which he never did, thus the girl was released,” Ngarambe said.

"We thank the Police for this crackdown, because since they started investigations and carried out arrests, we have bounced back into business and we are making more money with fewer buses, even when the 50 others are still parked. We are now considering putting them back on the road as we enroll back into full transport operations like before,” Ngarambe added.

Police investigations indicate that the suspects, with the help of insiders, would first know which serial number would be used that day before counterfeiting and using them, in most cases from 3pm.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw