Complaints were recorded at various police stations around the country regarding individuals encroaching private lands by creating fake deeds to claim ownership, The Sunday Morning learnt. Recently, such a land racket was uncovered by the Chilaw Police when a group of people tried to sell a property worth around Rs. 2 million in Mundalama. The Police arrested three suspects last Sunday (20) while the racketeers were trying to sell five plots of land by preparing fake deeds. Accordingly, one plot was already sold after faking the owner’s National Identity Card (NIC) and preparing a fake deed. The last plot was said to have been sold at Rs. 2 million. The racketeers were identified as aged between 45 and 50 years. The “Fake Deed” racket, as it has now come to be known, is one of the most common types of fraud happening in Sri Lanka. And according to the Registrar General’s Department, around 50% of land deeds in Sri Lanka were forged documents. A number of complaints are also recorded by the law-enforcement authorities on a daily basis regarding the production of fake deeds, title abstracts commonly known as “paththiru” in Sinhala, letters of permits, etc., and these types of fake deeds were mainly said to be created by using the seals of deceased notaries. In July, the Colombo High Court sentenced five suspects, who were found guilty of selling a piece of land in Kollupitiya under a fake deed, to 67 years in prison collectively. It was reported that a fine of Rs. 130,000 was levied on the suspects and they were ordered to pay Rs. 14 million as compensation to the owner of the land. The first defendant of the case, Christy Vivian Rodrigo, was sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 20,000, and Rs. 2 million in compensation. Dhammika Rodrigo, Jeyaraj Amarasinghe, and Chintha Rajapaksa, who were also found guilty, were served 10-year sentences and fines of Rs. 20,000. The trio is also to pay Rs. 3 million each in compensation to the land owner. The Attorney General served indictments against the five convicts over selling a piece of land on a road adjoining Marine Drive in Kollupitiya using fake deeds on 24 October 2012, and also aiding and abetting the said crime. Following the trial, Colombo High Court Judge Gihan Pilapitiya found the defendants guilty of the charges and handed down the aforementioned penalties. When contacted by The Sunday Morning, the Police Media Division said a number of incidents were reported regarding land issues, but the Division did not have separate data on the total number of suspects in custody at present over creating fake deeds and selling lands. An officer attached to the division said the respective police stations handle the cases as and when a complaint is lodged. How to protect oneself Explaining the process, Senior Counsel Sampath Perera told The Sunday Morning that the number of incidents where fake deeds are prepared for lands where the owners are residing in foreign countries is on the rise and around 50% of land deeds in Sri Lanka are forged. “These are not isolated incidents but very well-organised rackets,” he stressed. Explaining further, Perera said one of the main reasons as to why these incidents were on the rise was mainly because, in Sri Lanka, there is a system of document registration as against the title registration of lands. Whilst there is a pilot project for title registration, almost all the lands in the country were registered by documents. “Document registration has paved the way for many people to engage in these types of frauds. If a plot of land is registered by the title, the person under whose name the land is registered can be identified, and the space for fraud is limited,” he explained, adding that in most cases, the racketeers have either created fake documents or impersonated the true owner of the land. In most of these scams, the racketeers created fake NICs matching the details of the actual owner. Most of the time, the unsuspecting buyers and notaries get caught to this scam as the owner’s details (NIC) match the details on the title abstract, Perera added. To avoid this type of fraud, Senior Counsel Perera, who has more than 10 years of experience dealing with civil matters including land-related matters, said it is a must to check the land records either at the Land Registry or at local government offices. “If an owner wanted to protect the land from this type of fraud, the owner can file a caveat – a notice registered at the relevant Land Registry – which holds a record of the land. When the caveat is in place, the Land Registrar is duty-bound to inform those who register the caveat, when any document or alteration to the registration of the said land is received,” he explained. “Verification of relevant documents prior to purchasing land is a must,” Perera stressed. Furthermore, he noted: “To safeguard against any type of fraudulent transactions, the buyers should ensure that through his/her notary, the documents including the original deed, the title report (for more than 30 years), copy of the survey plan recently approved by the local authority, the plan from the local authority to identify any land to be acquired by the government for development projects, a certified copy of the duplicate deed (the copy of the deed with the stamp duly affixed, which must be mandatorily lodged at the Land Registry by the notary), abstracts of the title (paththiru), ownership non-vesting certificate, street/building line certificate, are in order.” Digitisation plans However, to avoid this type of fraudulent activity, the Registrar General’s Department is taking measures to digitise data on land deeds and birth certificates. When contacted by The Sunday Morning to ascertain what actions the Land Reform Commission (LRC) has taken to prevent these types of fraudulent activities, LRC Executive Director D.K.D. Disanayaka refused to provide information over the phone. When contacted by The Sunday Morning, Land Minister S.M. Chandrasena said: “A programme to computerise all land-related data is currently ongoing so as to prevent fraudulent activities related to lands.”