A file photo of Mostafa.

Gulf Today Report

A Tuk-Tuk driver in Aswan Governorate, south of Cairo, stole nearly two billion Egyptian pounds from the people in six weeks only.

An eyewitness named Sayed Talaat, from the village of Al Busailiya in Edfu, where the incident took place, said that Mostafa, the swindler is no more than 35 years of age and had a criminal record.

He added that he was convicted in several cases, but he served his jail term and had been recently released.

In mid-March 2022, Mostafa announced in his village and the neighbouring villages that if someone gives him an amount he would give back the double of it after 21 days.

According to Talaat, Mostafa's way of defrauding was innovative, as he did not take cash from people, but rather he bought their livestock but didn’t pay them for it saying he would give them double the payment amount within 21 days.

Talaat affirmed that Mostafa fulfilled his commitment of returning the double money to the first group that sold him their livestock, and his name began to spread throughout the entire governorate.

“In less than a month, most of the people of Aswan headed to him and begged him to take their livestock and give them the profits after 21 days,” Talaat added.

He also indicated that Mostafa started to recruit many of his relatives as delegates, and each one was responsible for collecting livestock and money from a village or region.

When Mostafa failed to give back the double money to many villagers even after the passage of 45 days, people headed to his house, where he told them that the people who worked with him defrauded him.

He promised to return the money within two days.

Angry people gathered in front of his house, but the police took control of the situation and started demolishing the courtyards in which he used to put the livestock.

However, the villagers plight is not over yet as as so far there is no official statement on Mostafa’s arrest or details about the amounts he collected from people.