Hyderabad: Arrests and imprisonments of white collar offenders in the city seem to be a futile exercise as they happily emerge out of jail on bail and continue to dupe the gullible victims.
Hyderabad has more number of repeated white collar offenders than any other city in the state. More than 200 such economic fraudsters who had been arrested earlier and are now involved in other economic scams, have been identified by the city police.
Fraudsters involved in money circulation schemes like direct marketing (DM), multi-level marketing (MLM), chit funds or in placement agencies and marriage bureaus, have tweaked the schemes to their own nefarious benefits and have targeted new victims and gypped them of crores.
According to National Crime Records Bureau, 9.6 per cent of total offenders in a year are repeated offenders in Telangana State with a large number of them being economic offenders.
The criminals spend enough money to hire good lawyers to get a bail and drag the case for years. The loopholes in economic fraud cases also help them to stay out of jail. “Most of the charges slapped against the suspects in economic offences are bailable”, said a senior official from Central Crime Station.
Those who do get convicted change their identity entirely after getting out of prison. “After coming out of the prison, they change their residence, and start their venture with a new attractive name. They even create fake identities to introduce themselves to customers, who are ignorant about the past history of the fraudster,” said the official. Experts say one way to curb the activities of these fraudsters is to build a database of the repeated offenders and spread awareness among the masses.
White-collar criminals
- Experts say one way to curb the activities of these fraudsters is to build a database of the repeated offenders and spread awareness among the masses.
- According to National Crime Records Bureau, 9.6 per cent of total offenders in a year are repeated economic offenders in Telangana State.
