Repeat scammer, Gopaul Tiwari appeared at the Wales Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to four counts of obtaining money by false pretence. The Dora, Demerara man, who was previously jailed for 18 months for similar offences, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on the new charges by Senior Magistrate Faith McGusty.
Jailed: Gopaul Tiwari
Tiwari has several nicknames, including “Omkar”, “Big Mike”, “Chris Persaud,” and “Mike Persaud”.
Guyana Times understands that the 54-year-old man swindled the individuals of close to $2 million in cash by telling them he was in a position to get them land, property, visas, and vehicles.
He admitted to defrauding David Sears of $200,000 by falsely pretending that he could get him a motor car; Pat Johnson of $260,000 by falsely pretending that he would grant her and her children United States of America visas; Steve Narine of $605,000 by pretending that he would import and deliver a Honda motor car to him, and Krishan Lochan of $914,000 for a plot of land.
Police had issued a wanted bulletin for Tiwari last December. Last Monday, Police ranks went to a guest house at Eccles, East Bank Demerara (EBD), where they arrested him.
In 2016, Tiwari was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to three offences, namely, conspiring to forge a transport, uttering the said forged transport, and fraudulent conversion.
Then in June 2014, he pleaded guilty to nine fraud-related charges. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on eight of the charges and three years on the other one.
The sentences, however, were ordered to be served concurrently. (G1)
