Two granted bail on fraud charges

Two persons were granted bail in the sum of GH¢300,000.00 with two sureties each, by an Accra Circuit Court, on Wednesday for defrauding by false pretences.

Nana Kwabena Boamah and Kofi Boadu, Gold Miners who were said to have defrauded some Italian businessmen were also charged for conspiracy to commit crime but pleaded not guilty to the charge.

They are to reappear before the court presided over by Mr Francis Obiri on October 14.

Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Abraham Annor told the court that the complainants, Albert Obeng Yeboah, Gianfranco Lombardo, and Michael Petrionio are Italian based businessmen and Directors of Papinoi Company Limited.

He said Nana Kwabena and Kofi claimed to be gold miners based at Tarkwa Nsuaem in the Western Region.

He said on September 8, the complainants who are also businessmen in Italy were lured into the country by one Kwame Pedro, now at large to buy gold.

According to the prosecution, the accused persons took their victims to the premises of Precious Minerals and Marketing Company (PMMC) to test quantities of gold which they claimed they had brought from Tarkwa Nsuaem to sell.

He told the court that in the end the gold was not tested at PMMC because officials requested to retain the gold after testing it for shipment to the buyer.

The accused person refused to allow PMMC to test and retain the gold, claiming the complainants had not paid the purchase price.

DSP Annor said at about 1500 hours, the accused persons lured the complainants into the premises of A.A Minerals Company Limited located at Dzorwulu where six kgs of gold was tested by a Metallurgist on the request of the accused persons who claimed to be the owners of the gold.

He said they later lured the complainants to Fiesta Royal Hotel, where they eventually defrauded them of $160,000.00 equivalent to GH¢572,700.00 being the purchase price for five kgs of gold under the pretext of supplying them with five kgs of pure gold but rather gave the complainant six kgs of yellowish metal bars.

The prosecution said the accused persons also pretended to have sold the extra one kg of gold to them on credit at the cost of $32,000.00 for which payment was to be made on September 15.

He told the court that few minutes after the transaction, the complainants found out that the six pieces of yellowish metal bars were fake gold.

A complaint was made to the police and the accused persons were arrested and they admitted having sold the six kgs of pure gold to the complainants who had paid for six kgs and made undertakings to pay the cost of the extra one kg later.

DSP Annor said the accused persons however denied selling fake gold bars to the complainants and were demanding for the payment of the extra one kg of gold that the complainants bought on credit.