Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Chef-turned-builder cheats 3000 people of Rs 25 crores, arrested' that was published in Newsband

Chef-turned-builder cheats 3000 people of Rs 25 crores, arrested

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Economic Offence Wing arrested a builder Ashley Noel Concessio (42) for allegedly cheating more than 3000 people to the tune of Rs 25 crores by making false promises of providing them plots in Navi Mumbai.

Ashley was a chef and he had entered the real estate sector few years ago. Ashley formed a project Pragati Valley in Navi Mumbai in 2005 which offered residential plots. He allegedly sold around 5,000 plots and collected Rs 25 crores from the investors.

Ashley did not keep his promise and fled without refunding investors’ money. The police received around 400 complaints against him.

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.

Ashley took advantage of the fact that an International Airport was to come up in Navi Mumbai. The prices of plots showed promise of rising considerably. Hence, he was able to attract many investors towards the plots in Navi Mumbai. 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.

The police received many complaints against him and they started a massive hunt for him in in Mumbai and Pune. At last Ashley was arrested in Mumbai on Monday.