Young ‘talent scout’ arrested by police

BUSTED. Kenneth Ryan Chan tries to cover his face from TV cameramen after he was arrested for allegedly scamming university students. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

He told girls in Cebu City he was a  talent scout  and used Facebook to look for  aspiring  models.

But 21-year-old kenneth Ryan Chan ended up  arrested yesterday in  entrapment in a coffee house in Fuente Osmeña, Cebu City after he allegedly attempted to dupe three university coeds .
Senior Supt. Noli Romana, chief of police of Cebu City, presented  Chan, a resident of  barangay Pardo, and said  the young man would likely be charged with large scale estafa.

According to the complainants, Chan  befriended them on Facebook and enticed them to embark on a modelling career.

He  asked them to pay a P3,500 processing fee so that he could book them for a photo session and had them wire the amount through money transfer agents.

One of the students became suspicious when Chan kept  rescheduling the photo session after she sent him the money.

“He spoke to us in English. He said he doesn’t know how to speak Bisaya. He initially told us that we’ll have a photoshoot in Lapu-Lapu then he cancelled it because of heavy rains. He told us that another session was set in Plaza Independencia last Saturday, which he again called off. He then told us that he will make us attend a modelling workshop on Monday where the cancelled photo session will be held – and again he called it off as he had a meeting to attend. I then realized that something fishy was going on,” one of the victims told Cebu Daily News.

The girl’s mother sought the help of a friend who works for Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

Rama’s staffer in turn tapped the  Cebu City Police Office which laid out a trap.

A friend of the victim posed as  somebody interested to become a  model.

Chan agreed to meet the girl at the coffee house in Fuente Osmeña,  and received her P3,500 as a  “processing fee”.

Undercover policemen immediately arrested Chan after he received the money which was marked with flourescent powder.

At the police station, Chan said he was the manager of a   modelling agency called PAMP,  and denied trying to deceive the students.

He said he’s been working for the agency owned by a cousin for three years and found out only this year that  the company was operating illegally.

“Actually karon nga year, niingon siya nga wa na siya’y klaro. So every year, nag sige kog pangayo sa paperwork. Sila ra say sig ingon nga naa ra sa office but di niya ipakita nako,” he said.

(It was this year when my cousin told me that our business was going nowhere. I’ve been asking him for the company’s documents, but they’d just tell me that it’s in the office but they won’t let me see it.)

He said his role was to accompany the models in their photo  assignments.

Chan denied that he owns the Facebook account “bebigurl” which was  used to trawl the Internet for  “clients”.

“I have my own Facebook account but I don’t use it anymore. I don’t own this account. It’s my cousin’s. He’s the one who does the recruitment. He just uses my phone number,” he said in Cebuano.

Police chief Romana said they will further investigate the case.