Car dealer arrested over defrauding clients

IGANGA, UGANDA: Police in Kiira region on Wednesday arrested Hussein Tizikoma, a resident of Iganga municipality over obtaining money through false pretense and defrauding his potential clients.

Tizikoma was arrested from his hideout in Busei village, Iganga municipality following a tipoff from one of his victims who has been tracking his movements for the past two months.

His arrest follows complaints from three car buyers who each paid to him 10 Million Shillings after he promised to sell to them saloon cars earlier this year, however to date, his whereabouts were unknown to them.

It is alleged that Tizikoma, a renowned car dealer obtains money in installments from potential car buyers however, when they complete his payments, he sometimes switches off his phones and disappears.

Shaban Mugwana, a resident of Bugembe ward in Jinja city says that Tizikoma took him to a Kampala city based car bond in April, where they inspected a vehicle of Isuzu forward series.

Mugwana adds that he was meant to clear the vehicle fees amounting to 65 million Shillings in a period of three months however, after clearing the first installment, Tizikoma reportedly disappeared.

“According to the agreement I signed with Tizikoma, I was meant to clear the vehicle dues in July this year, but after paying up the deposit fee of 19 million Shillings which was even receipted, he was never reachable again and I decided to engage police authorities to  track him down,” he says.

Kiira region police spokesperson James Mubi, says that the suspect was conniving with vehicle bond owners both within Jinja and Kampala to hoodwink unsuspecting victims on the availability of their preferred vehicles, only to block communication after collecting payments from them.

Mubi further advised members of the general public to crosscheck with Uganda Revenue Authority-URA, before purchasing any vehicles from both individuals and vehicle bond warehouses.