Goldsmith cheats banks of 24 lakh

MYSURU: A

goldsmith

appointed to ascertain the value of

gold

items pledged by customers has allegedly cheated various banks in Periyapatna taluk to the tune of Rs 24 lakh.
Bylakuppe police said that Syndicate

Bank

manager Narayan and SBI manager Siddesh from Bylakuppe registered a complaint in the second week of November.

According to the complaint, Shivaram, a Mangaluru-based goldsmith conspired with some bank customers and helped them get loans by pledging fake gold items.

As Shivaram was to verify the authenticity and value of the pledged gold, he would declare the items as genuine and then take some of the loan amount from the customers.

The matter came to light when a customer approached Syndicate Bank with gold items and applied for a loan. As usual, Shivaram verified the gold items and declared them to be genuine. But he had pressurized the bank authorities to clear the loan amount immediately. Bank manager Narayan Nayak smelt a rat and got the gold items verified by another goldsmith, who said they were fake.

Immediately, the bank authorities checked all the gold items valued by Shivaram and found that all pledged items were fake. When they enquired with customers, it was found that Shivaram used to search for people who were in dire need of money for health, accidents and other emergency reasons. He would convince them to pledge fake gold in banks and give him a share.

During the investigation, it was found that Shivaram had cheated SBI and Syndicate Bank in Periyapatna and the

Kushalanagar Primary Cooperative Bank

with the same modus operandi for the past four years. The complaint says he has cheated Syndicate Bank of Rs 11 lakh through 13 customers and Rs 13 lakh of SBI Bylukuppe through six customers.
Bylakuppe police have registered a case against Shivaram and are looking for him.