23-year-old miner fined for receiving payments through electronic medium falsely

A 23-year-old small-scale miner, who tricked two mobile money vendors and received a cash sum of GH¢8,000 through electronic means falsely, has been fined GH¢12,000 or, in default, six years of imprisonment by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.

Charged with four counts of receiving payments through electronic means falsely, Ahmed Abdul Rahaman pleaded guilty with an explanation.

The court, presided over by Mrs. Hathia Ama Manu, noted that Rahaman’s explanation confirmed his guilty plea, and therefore, convicted him on his own plea.

In addition, the court ordered Rahaman to refund the GH¢8,000 belonging to the two mobile money vendors.

Prosecuting Chief Superintendent of Police Alex Odonkor said the complainants, Evelyn Lartey and Prince Appiah, were mobile money vendors at Wassa Asikuma in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality, and both resided in the same community as Rahaman.

On April 10, 2024, which happened to be Eid ul-Fitr, while Evelyn was at work, Rahaman approached her and asked her to transfer an amount of GH¢1,000 into his MTN mobile money account under the name Sadick Abdulai Baafi.

After Evelyn completed the transaction, Rahaman asked her to transfer another GH¢1,000 into the same mobile money account, which she did.

Chief Superintendent Odonkor said that during all this, Rahaman kept convincing Evelyn that his brother was bringing GH¢4,000 in physical cash to pay her, and again requested that she transfer another GH¢2,000, which she did.

Evelyn waited for some time and realized that Rahaman had been deceiving her to get away with her cash.

Rahaman, who lived close to where Evelyn did her mobile money business, pledged to go home and get her the money but never returned.

The prosecutor stated that Rahaman then went to where Appiah worked and asked him to transfer GH¢2,000 into his MTN mobile money account, which he did.

He also pleaded with Appiah to transfer another GH¢2,000 into the same account, claiming his brother was on his way with the money.

According to the prosecution, after Rahaman had received the money, he told Appiah that since his brother was delayed, he would dash home and bring him the money, and Appiah agreed.

Appiah waited for Rahaman, but there was no sign of him returning with the money. He then went to Rahaman’s house, where he unfortunately met Evelyn accusing him of defrauding her using the same method. They arrested Rahaman and took him to the Wassa Akropong police station for investigation.

In his caution statement, Rahaman admitted the offense and explained that he had used the money to play an aviator game, hoping to win and refund the complainants’ cash, but unfortunately lost miserably.

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