The economic offences wing of the Delhi police has arrested a builder for allegedly cheating more than 3,000 people to the tune of `25 crores on the pretext of providing them plots in Navi Mumbai.
A senior police official said the accused was identified as Ashley Noel Concessio. The official said that Ashley was a chef and he entered the real estate sector few years ago only to cheat innocent people.
Concessio had floated a project Pragati Valley in Navi Mumbai through his firm in 2005 offering residential plots. He allegedly sold around 5,000 plots with the help of marketing agents in Delhi, collecting `25 crores from the investors.
“However, he later reneged on the deal and fled without refunding investors’ money. We had received around 400 complaints against him,” said the police.
Ashley who was born and brought up in Bandra, Mumbai, had worked as a chef in Kuwait for two year and jumped into the real estate sector in 2005 after coming back to Mumbai.
He started a proprietorship firm in the name of Pragati Land and Housing Corporation, which purchased some land in Karzat near Navi Mumbai for the project Pragati Valley.
However, the Maharashtra government did not give necessary approvals regarding change of land use for the residential project. As the project could not come up, he sold the land and fled.
A number of complaints were lodged against him and the police were looking for him.
After many raids in Mumbai and Pune, Ashley was finally arrested in Mumbai on Monday.