Southern H’lander charged with forging, uttering estate documents

A SOUTHERN Highlands man was last week charged by National Capital District police with two counts each of forging and uttering estate documents.
NCD metropolitan commander Supt Joseph Tondop praised his officers saying they had arrested
one of many men allegedly claiming to be genuine and legitimate owners either of land or property.
Tondop said the accused, Paias Polu, 47, from Pulupatu village in Kagua district, had allegedly forged and uttered signatures of the late Gordon Tali, from Siassi, Morobe, and claimed possession of the deceased’s estate.
Tondop said the accused was introduced to Gordon Tali, the estate owner, while in his sick-bed at Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, Morobe, when the accused allegedly obtained consent  to take custody of the property.
He said the accused allegedly obtained consent to possess the estate in April,last year, at Angau Memorial Hospital, where the owner was admitted with tuberculosis .
The property was then published in a daily newspaper, to seek interest of the property in relation to the deceased’s property late last year – a normal process to see if genuine or interested people or parties and even if relatives were concerned about the said estate.
Having seen that no-one was interested about the paid advertisement of the estate, the accused intended to take ownership of the property by preparing his documents.
It was alleged that the accused early this
year went to Port Moresby and conspired with some senior officers from the public curator’s office and signed a statutory declaration on behalf of the deceased.
The other papers that were allegedly signed from the public curator’s office were the consent of administration of the late Tali’s estate and the affidavit of death, signed and endorsed under the deceased’s name.
Tondop said the manner in which the accused conducted himself was to defraud the deceased’s estate as his own.
Tondop said accor­ding to the documents signed, the deceased was not in Port Moresby early this year.
After the papers were cleared from the curator’s office, the same was done at the Lands Department and subsequently, the estate
was transferred to his name.
After seeing that the property of the late Tali was no longer their property, his biological relatives launched an investigation into how the property of the late Tali ended up with someone who was not related to them.