Kingston Police have arrested a former world-class athlete after several alleged fraud attempts at a number of car dealerships.

On Saturday, Sept 14, 2019 Kingston Police say they were made aware of a potential vehicle fraud in progress. Their investigation revealed that a suspect, 47-year-old Kofi Yevakpor, had made two separate online applications to purchase high end sport utility vehicles at two Kingston-area dealerships. Yevakpor allegedly provided copies of forged identification which displayed his own photograph, but another person’s name and date of birth, to be approved for financing.

On Tuesday September 17, 2019 Kingston Police officers arranged to be on-hand and undercover when the potential fraudster attended at the first dealership to pick up his selected vehicle.

Yevakpor was arrested without incident and found to be in possession of the forged identification necessary to complete the vehicle purchase.

Yevakpor has been charged with 19 counts of fraud and impersonation-related offences. In addition to the two local dealerships, Kingston Police say the fraud attempts also involved a car dealership in Bobcaygeon, Ontario.

This is not Yevakpor’s first run-in with the law. In 2006, he was convicted of two charges of drug trafficking after trying to smuggle almost six pounds of heroin, worth approximately $1 million at the time, into the United States.

Yevakpor, who at that time was thirty-five years old, was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers at the Champlain, Quebec crossing after a search of his luggage uncovered the drugs.

Yevakpor, who immigrated to Canada from Ghana in 1994, was a professional and world-class sprinter until he was banned in 2001 from competition in Canada for four years, after testing positive for the anabolic steroids norandrosterone and stanozolol.