Police in Kumasi have arrested an elderly couple who allegedly used their ages to secure goods on credit in a sophisticated trade fraud across regions.

Kingsly Thomson, 60 and Betty Thomson, 55 – both residents of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital – in one of their purported elaborate scams, managed to obtain GHȼ35,170 worth of goods being PZ products, from MTM Mantinado Ventures at Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.

They have a history of fraudulent practices, with a Kumasi circuit court having issued a bench warrant for their arrest in similar fraud cases pending before it.

DSP Kwabena Otuo-Acheampong, Manhyia Divisional Crime Officer who confirmed the arrest of the couple, told Daily Guide newspaper the twosome had admitted the offence in their caution statements to the police.

According to him, the couple had set up a complex network of fake trading enterprises which they used to obtain goods on credit from wholesale businesses across regions.

The police chief explained that the couple, in one of their fraud schemes, went to the Akim Oda branch of MTM Mantinado Ventures to purchase items worth GHȼ35,170 and issued postdated dud cheques from two banking institutions to the creditor in June last year.

They also deceived the Managing Director of Mantinado Ventures, Martin Mireku Tenadu, to pay up their bills, but went missing after the cheques were rejected.

The Zongo police in Kumasi apprehended the suspects, who later jumped bail and went into hiding till their latest arrest by the Manhyia Divisional Police Command.