A man who posed as an employee of Procredit Savings and Loans was nearly lynched by an angry mob in Kokomlemle when he attempted to defraud a petty trader.

He had succeeded in collecting an amount of 1,800 Ghana cedis from the trader, with the promise of a quick deposit at the Kokomlemle branch of Procredit Savings and Loans Company but made away with the cash instead.

His luck run out as he was arrested several meters from the branch and beaten to a pulp by an angry mob.

But for the intervention of the police, the suspect, believed to be in his early 40s would have been killed.

Speaking to Myjoyonline.com, the petty trader named only as Esther, who fell victim to the fraudulent antics of the suspect, said she had gone to the banking hall to deposit the amount given to her by her boss.

According to her, when she got there she met the suspect neatly dressed in a black suit and a multi-coloured tie to match, seated in the banking area.

The victim of fraud

The suspect then asked if she was a Member of the Methodist Church to which she affirmed. She quickly joined the queue with the intention of depositing her money.

Shortly after, the suspect approached her with a friendly offer supposedly from a Christian brother to quickly deposit the money at the first floor of the Bank where there was no queue.

Grudgingly, she agreed and handed over the money and her personal details to the man, who made his away up the building.

She said she waited for some few minutes and followed up to see if her 'Christian brother' had concluded the transaction, only to be told by other workers that deposits are only made on the ground floor and that nobody had come upstairs with the description she was giving.

The distraught trader rushed out of the banking hall, asking in desperation if anybody had seen a relatively short, dark skinned man in a suit making his way out of the hall.

Even though the responses were not convincing, she said she walked several meters down only to see the fraudster chatting with some tailors.

Raising an alarm, she quickly accosted him, tore his singlet and demanded her money. The suspect dropped the money and attempted to run but was seized by a mob who beat him mercilessly.

They brought him back to the banking area with his shirt torn, trouser hanging loosely on his body with blood oozing from his face.

Despite appeals from some bystanders for the mob to stop beating the suspect, they would not budge.

They kept on pummeling the suspect until the police arrived to whisk him away.