Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations have arrested Samuel Mwendwa Mutua, 50, for defrauding St Joseph's Maternity and Nursing Home in Nakuru.
According to DCI, Mwendwa conned the hospital of Sh948,000, pretending he would ship equipment from China using his company, World Freight Logistics Limited after the hospital contracted him in 2020.
"The equipment included hospital beds, mortuary equipment, theatre beds and a dental chair," DCI said.
The suspect went on to claim that the China-based vendor had put all the equipment into a 40-feet container and settled it on Oceanus Intn'l Logistics (Shenzen) Co. Ltd.
The hospital then made the first payment of Sh407,000 from its Equity Bank account to Mwendwa’s company account held at a local bank, as payment for freight charges on November 6, 2020.
"When the goods arrived in the country on Dec 8, 2020, the hospital had applied for clearance permit from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, before releasing Sh158,200 to the suspect's bank account as shipping line charges and container deposits."
"An extra Sh383,000 was on April 4, 2021, sent to the suspect to cater for Kenya Ports Authority rent and the World Freight Logistics agency fee, the latter amounting to Sh183,000," DCI said.
After receiving the whole amount, the suspect disappeared after a series of false promises that his company would deliver the goods at the hospital's facility.
Seeing that things were not going according to plan and learning that their shipment had been auctioned on overstay grounds at the Embakasi ICD, the hospital lodged a complaint with the DCI.
The sleuths later discovered that the suspect neither paid the freight charges to Oceanus Co. Ltd, rent to KPA nor the container deposits.
They also discovered that the swift transfer forms presented by the suspect alleging to have paid USD3275 to the China-based company as freight charges were fake.
The suspect will be arraigned in court and charged for obtaining money by false pretences and forgery
"The DCI calls upon any other member of the public who may have been duped by the suspect or his company in a similar manner to make their report at DCI Headquarters-Operations Directorate," DCI added.
