Dear WOG,

I am writing to ask you for help. It's a long story so I will try to keep it short. In September 2013 my friend and I moved to The Gambia from the UK after having visited your country just once and being utterly captivated by the warmth of the people and the beautiful beaches. We didn't have any specific plans nor did we know anybody there ....in hindsight this moment of madness could have been better planned hahaha, however, we have no regrets because we both love The Gambia. We have learnt many lessons as you can imagine and lost thousands of pounds, some owing to our own foolishness, and we accept these lessons with Grace, however what we cannot accept if being ripped off and being humiliated.

So here is where the story begins. After many months of being there we met many people and I believe we met both the good and the bad but this is life everywhere. A friend of ours that we trusted introduced us to Mohammed Dampha. He came to our house to ask for our help. He told us that he had a container stuck in the port as someone has disappointed him and begged us for help as he was desperate to get back to the UK to his wife and kids , he even showed us sad messages from his little girl begging him to come home. At this point he said he had been stuck in The Gambia for many months. After several meetings, and I might say, very reluctantly, we agreed to help him.

The deal was that we pay the port fees and clear the container in return for a car inside the container, a Mitsubishi Pajero...we saw the bill of loading so we knew a car existed but we didn't know the condition of it so it was agreed that if we didn't like it we would have our money back. Plus 10% when he sold the other good inside the container. It was a risk of course as we had already lost thousands of pounds and fought and won and court battle with someone else who had tried to rip us off, but we decided to give him a chance because we felt sorry for him but we also thought it would be a good opportunity to raise money to start another business. So we all go to the port after paying the fees, the container is opened and we like the car. We agreed he would deliver the car to us the next day after valuation and deal done. No....the car never came, we phoned, he lied that there was a problem and the car was still in the port, this went on for a few weeks, and then he disappeared back to the UK. We later found out that he had got the car out and sold it to someone else whilst continuing to lie to us. I can't even begin to tell you the impact of this on us. Financially it ruined us and we had to rely on the charity of the Gambian friends we had made, emotionally it was the final straw in the many months of meeting thief after thief. We were also burgled by one of our friends stealing all our valuables and cash.

This has left us feeling very sad indeed and disillusioned about who to trust in The Gambia. It made us physically and mentally unwell. We went to the police of course but he had already gone. Our friend who introduced us to him begged him to pay us all back but nothing has come yet. We are not going to give up on this and we want you to try and reach pit to him and his people. We will continue to work with the police to arrest him but also if he does not respond to this we may have to consider naming him in the British press as a con man.

We want this man named and shamed. He is selfish and callous. We want our money back and we will not let this go until he pays back every single dalasi of the thousands he owes to us and our friend. This has become a fight to justice now, it's the principle that he thinks he can treat people in this way and they will do nothing.

Thanks Cosy