Con artist disappears with pensioner’s car

Jun 09, 2017 News

A 72-year-old pensioner is at her wits’ end to locate a man whom she entrusted with her Toyota Corolla motorcar to work for hire, so that she could augment her finances.

Oneil Simon

Sukdai Ramsammy, of Sachi Bazaar Street, Prashad Nagar, told Kaieteur News that she placed an advertisement in a local newspaper in late March of this year for a hire car driver, since the vehicle was parked in her yard “doing nothing”.
The woman, who had to be assisted up the stairs into Kaieteur News, explained that on April 3, she received a call and a subsequent visit from 31-year-old Oneil Odan Simon, of 1430 Cummings Park on the East Coast of Demerara, expressing his interest in being the driver.
Ramsammy said that when Simon came he was accompanied by his young son, and she thought that she was about to make a good decision.
Simon, who has not been seen in two months, told the pensioner that apart from “working taxi”, the only other business he would use the car for would be to attend church and to take his children to school.
An emotional Ramsammy said that she agreed with the now elusive Simon that he would ‘work’ the car and at the end of the week he would be expected to give her $15,000.
Things went well for the first two weeks, so much so that the woman even added Simon’s name to her insurance policy. It was at the end of that 14-day period that everything changed for the worse.
Simon stopped taking the elderly woman’s calls, and she enlisted her son to help in this regard. The son, who accompanied his mother to this newspaper, said that he managed to make contact with Simon, and was given all assurances that the car would have been returned.
Further, the man added that after constantly calling Simon, he was instructed to uplift the vehicle, but when he and the pensioner went to the location provided, all they were confronted with was a track filled with bushes.
The man said knowing how the issue had taken a negative effect on his mother, he drove for a few seconds down the desolate pathway, but soon saw a group of men approaching with cutlasses and he retreated.
They soon left, and when Simon was contacted he told the woman’s son ‘don’t call me back’. Not knowing what else to do, the woman said she went to the police and when she showed the ranks at the station the man’s photograph the policemen exclaimed, ‘is dah thief you give your car mommy?’.
According to the pensioner, the police informed her that Simon is known to them and he is of questionable character. The police then accompanied the woman to the man’s address, but he was not there.
Neighbours said that they had not seen ‘cassava man’ (as he is known to them), in two months, the same length of time that the woman has not seen her car.
When Kaieteur News contacted Simon, he said that he gave the car to the woman’s son. But he was unaware that the said young man was at this newspaper at the time.
When this was brought to his attention, Simon changed his story and said that he had parked the vehicle somewhere in Georgetown and he had hoped that it would have been collected by the pensioner’s son.
Simon said that he has no idea where the car is at the moment and promised to come to this newspaper to clarify what he deemed as an attempt to besmirch his character. Up to press time Simon was nowhere to be seen.

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