Businessman defrauds 22 Taysec workers of 314 million cedis

Accra, Nov. 22, GNA - Selassi Klu, a businessman who defrauded 22 workers of Taysec Construction Company in Accra of 314 million cedis was on Thursday put before an Accra Circuit Court charged with defrauding by false pretences.

He collected the money from them with the pretext of selling plots of land to them.

Klu's plea was not taken and Mr Justice Frank Manu, a High Court Judge with an additional responsibility on the case as a Circuit Court Judge, remanded him in police custody for two weeks to enable the police to complete investigations.

The prosecution said between 2005 and 2006, Klu told employees of Taysec that he had parcels of land for sale at Abokobi and Medie. Twenty-two workers expressed interest and parted with money ranging between 3.5 and 51 million cedis. After collecting the money totalling 314 million cedis, Klu went into hiding until July 23 this year when one of the victims saw him and caused his arrest.

While in police custody, Klu admitted that he defrauded the workers and promised to refund the money if released. He, however, said he took 240 million cedis and not 314 million cedis as alleged by the police. After being granted police enquiry bail to be reporting periodically to the police, Klu again went into hiding until November 17, when he was re-arrested.