A social worker allegedly cheated a Swedish couple to the tune of ` 1.25 crore. Thurvold Olson and his wife Saraswathi Olson (55) had wanted to start a home for mentally ill children on the city suburbs.

The couple appointed a social worker, Vijayalakshmi and sent her `23.5 lakh to purchase a plot with a house to start the home in 2005. But Vijayalakshmi had purchased a 2,200 sq ft of land with a house at Korattur for `16 lakh instead, while the remaining amount was unaccounted for.

Saraswathi, of Udumalaipettai who is now settled in Sweden owned a 5,000-sqft land with two flats at Sholinganallur, worth over `1 crore, which the couple had wanted Vijayalakshmi to maintain. But Vijayalakshmi had sold the land with fake documents and later had given `11 lakh to the couple, claiming that she had only leased out the land and flats. Then Vijayalakshmi silently moved in to the two-storeyed house at the Korattur property and rented out the ground floor.

Vijayalakshmi gave lame excuses whenever the couple asked her to start the home. She told the couple that the house needed a lot of repair and whiled away four years.

When the Swedish couple came to India in 2008 they asked the social worker to produce details of the accounts, but the woman had refused. Ramesh, who was in-charge of an NGO at Salem that was run by the couple, said that, “I had even gone to the Korattur property for inspection but the woman threatened and told us not to enter the house”.

Ramesh who is an Indian representative for the Swedish couple then approached the suburban police commissioner on Monday and filed a complaint and sough for action to be taken against Vijayalakshmi.