Oamaru police urgently want to hear from anyone corresponding with a man calling himself Robert Thomas, who persuaded an Oamaru woman to cash bogus traveller's cheques at an Oamaru bank and withdraw cash to send overseas.
Senior Constable Bruce Dow yesterday said a man giving that name befriended a North Otago woman through the Internet and email.
He gave an Auckland address and said he was stuck in Nigeria with traveller's cheques which could not be cashed in that country.
They were posted from Sydney to the woman who presented them at a bank in Oamaru in good faith, not knowing they were counterfeit.
The bank gave her the cash and she transferred it to another bank and it was then transferred by wire to an international banking organisation.
The man was able to walk into a bank in Lagos and collect a ‘‘large sum'' of money, Snr Const Dow said.
Police were concerned there could be other people corresponding with the man, about to get ‘‘sucked in''.
The man gave his email as robertthomas77@hotmail.co.uk
