-complainant
The group which lost millions to a ‘tour operator’ after they signed up for a bogus Canada tour last November said they had informed police the man was a flight risk but his passport was never taken as a precaution.
A letter dated October 30, 2008 was received by most of a 42-member group informing them of a trip to Canada which would be sponsored by the Canadian Heritage Trust in association with the Centennial College. Other group members learnt of the tour via telephone. The letter, from W.D.A.Y.L Tours located at Lot 4 Old Road, De Kinderen, West Coast Demerara, said that a US$150 registration fee would be required by November 28, 2008 and would need a Canadian visa which would “be taken care of by the sponsor (conditions apply)”. However, the hopeful ‘Canada visitors’ lost about $7 million and were left with fake visa rejection stamps in their passports.
A woman, who lost just under $100, 000 to the tours provider, told Stabroek News last evening that the matter was first reported to the Brickdam Police Station. According to her, the police officer who was first told about the “problem” initially said that “it is a private matter and the police cannot do anything”. The matter, she said on behalf of the cheated group, was approached in a “laid back” manner.
A senior police officer, when contacted yesterday afternoon by this newspaper, was unable to comment on the matter. Another senior ranking officer, when contacted early last evening, also said that he was yet to be briefed on the matter and could say nothing to the police. When questioned about why a wanted bulletin has not yet been published for the tour coordinator, the officer refused to comment.
“In early June after we figured out that the rejection stamps in our passport which [name of tour operator] said was from the High Commission of Canada in Trinidad and Tobago we went to Brickdam police station to report the matter,” the woman recalled. “The police we spoke to told us that it was a private matter and not a crime and that the police force could do nothing about it.”
Shortly after, the group returned to the police station and spoke to that police officer’s superior. It was the higher ranking officer who informed his subordinate that the matter was indeed a criminal one and advised that the report and statements be taken. The group was then informed that police would locate the tour operator.
About two weeks later, according to the woman, the group again returned to the station and the tour operator in the presence of police said that he would return the monies to the persons who had signed up for the Canada trip. However, the group met with the man twice more at the police station and no money was ever paid to anyone, the woman reported.
“It was very ridiculous,” she said. “It was clear that this man would not return our money and would’ve preferred if he has been charged and taken to court…many of us trusted him because either we or people we knew had used him to travel before…we were betrayed and we are still looking for justice.”
September 30, the woman reported, was eventually set as the deadline for the tour operator to repay the group but on that date he did not show up at the station. They later learned, she said, that the tour operator and his family had left for the US. The tour operator’s family, according to her, has returned to Guyana but there is no sign of the man.
“We went to the De Kinderen address several times but the place is locked up tight…the police had asked us to hold the story from the media until they had finished their investigation but after this man disappear we decided it was about time we spoke out,” she told Stabroek News.
Meanwhile, the Canadian High Commissioner Francois Montour has since described the incident as “very unfortunate” and stressed that the organization has no involvement in the issue. Speaking to reporters yesterday Montour said that the documents purportedly received by victims of the scam did not emanate from Canadian immigration authorities. The High Commission, according to him, was made aware of the issue by the newspaper reports.
The Canadian High Commissioner advised that Guyanese should be suspicious and careful of promises made by individuals to obtain a visa. No person or organization other than the Canadian High Commission, Montour stressed, has any mandate to provide visas to persons who apply.