Police in Lilongwe are keeping in custody four men for allegedly duping a 68-year-old woman of K534000 after selling her 30 bags of counterfeit cement, made of quarry dust.

The suspects have been identified as Lyton Yohane, 42, Joseph Green, 42, Wilson Ogren, 48, and Kayinga Nololo, 50.

The suspects, who had bags of the counterfeit cement displayed next to a certain shop along the Kamuzu Procession Road, enticed the woman to purchase the commodity from them claiming theirs was affordable compared to prices being offered by hardware shops.

“When the woman purchased the cement and went home, ready to use it for construction, it is when builders told her that the product was counterfeit,” said Hastings Chigalu, Lilongwe police spokesperson.