Reverend Dr. Jack Nana Reynolds, the celebrated pastor of the Rama Church with headquarters in Tema has found himself in the dock charged with fraud.
According to police report, and intense investigation by this writer, Pastor Reynolds has in various ways and pretexts defrauded one Mrs. Charlotte Ashford and her daughter Mrs. Jacqueline Owusu a.k.a Lady Jacklyn Sarpong Boateng, all Ghanaians resident in London the gross amount of ?16,000.
Pastor Reynolds, when he appeared before the magistrate court at Awutu in the Central Region last week Monday, denied any wrongful dissipation of the money, including that of the charge of fraud.
Prosecution however believes it has strong evidence to nail the pastor.
Consequently, when the pastor makes his second appearance at the court on June 25 this year, the prosecution claims it has a load of well-rehearsed charges for him to face.
Among the charges being hurled at Dr. Reynolds are, how he managed to spend ?9,750 on two suspicious pieces of land purchased for use as a petrol filling station, the fraudulent statement of account prepared for the plaintiffs, as well as another ?6,000 being proceeds from goods sent to him from the UK by the lady and her daughter for sale.
Information available to this reporter confirms that Mrs. Ashford, who is currently lame, mortgaged her house in Britain to obtain the said amount to invest in a petrol filling station, pending her final return to Ghana.
Particularly dreadful is the charge against Pastor Reynolds, that he falsified an official receipt issued by the royal family of Ngleshie Amanfro, and that he had spent ?30 million developing the land.
Meanwhile, the Queenmother of Ngleshie, Amanfro Manye Tanbia II, has intimated to this writer that the land which pastor Reynolds claims to have purchased for ?60 million is indeed ?50 million and not sixty as the pastor claims. The duplicate receipts with the queen mother shows ?49 million but which have been falsified to ?59 million. "The pastor still owes me one million cedis," Manye Tanbia complained.
Independent investigation by this writer at the site shows that the ?30 million Jack Reynolds claims to have used to prepare the land, including the erection of a dwarf wall and three trips of sand are all false.
When the pastor was quizzed by this reporter, all he could say in defense was that, "I must have been duped." In spite of the fact that there was no dwarf wall, the pastor insisted that "the dwarf was there, I have seen it."
Meanwhile a police search at the Lands Commission on the status of the land has revealed, "The site is state land."
The Lawyer and politician T. N. Ward Brew is representing Pastor Reynolds.
The battle of the plaintiffs is being waged through one Mr. Philip Opoku acting on a Power of Attorney.
Instead of facing the music at the Awutu magistrate court, Nana Reynolds had jumped the gun and rather sued the plaintiff's representative at the Tema High Court for causing his 'false arrest, false imprisonment and detention for good 13 hours,' at the Kasoa Police Station.
Meanwhile lawyers of the plaintiff are struggling to have what they describe as most appropriate charge of Rev. Reynolds since there appears to be confusion over the police investigation and what they contend is the improper presentation of the case at Awutu.
