Lilongwe police arrested a woman, identified as Maggie Nyirenda, who uses a wheelchair, on suspicion of swindling over 200 people of K50,000 each in Mchinji and Lilongwe.
She allegedly claimed her organization would pay school fees at Maranatha Academy.
Nyirenda, an ex-convict from Mzuzu Prison, had previously been jailed for similar offenses. Using various means, she convinced people in the districts by claiming foreign donors supported her disability organization.
She collected registration fees and issued fake receipts. In a bid to verify her claims, a group including a headteacher from Benjamin Primary School in Mchinji traveled to Lilongwe and paid her K350,000 for seven students.
However, they discovered she was a fraud after visiting Maranatha Academy. When they demanded their money back at the guest house where Nyirenda was staying, she refused.
This led to tensions, prompting Area 36 Police to intervene and arrest Nyirenda.
At Lilongwe Police Station, she was found with K241,000 and confessed to collecting money for her own survival due to her physical condition.
