Court jails unemployed for fraud

An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced Eric Selorm Nortsu, unemployed, to a five-year imprisonment in hard labour for defrauding by false pretense.

He pleaded not guilty but after trial he was convicted and sentenced accordingly.

The court also ordered that the convict refunds the amount of GH? 55,200 to the 19 victims from whom he collected monies from.

Detective Chief Inspector Samuel Sarkah told the court that the complainant in the case was a trader.

He said in December, 2013, the complainant, who was desirous to get enlisted into the Ghana Police Service discussed it with a friend one Faustina, now residing on the United Kingdom.

He said the friend gave the convict’s contact number to the complainant, so he could help her.

The prosecution said the complainant, then called the convict on telephone and demanded and collected a cash sum of GH?2,000.00 from her to be used to help her.

Detective Chief Inspector Sarkah said later the convict called the complainant that there was a lot of vacancies in the Police Service and that the complainant should look for people, who are equally interested to join the Police Service.

He said based on the information, the complainant went to her hometown Techiman in the Brong-Ahafo Region and collected GH?3,000.00 each from 19 people totaling GH?57,000.00 and handed the money over to the convict.

“Again, the convict informed the complainant that he could help her buy auction car from Tema harbour and complainant gave him an additional cash of GH?6,200.00 for the said car,” he added.

The convict after collecting all the money could neither enlist them into the Police Service nor buy the auction car for the complainant.