Con man sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for fraud

A con man, who succeeded through deceit to obtain a loan of GH¢7,000.00 from a micro-finance company has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour by a Kumasi Circuit Court.

Desmond Quarshie used documents of a Toyota Avensis saloon car he procured through fraud as collateral for the money.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing and defrauding by false pretence.

An Assistant State Attorney, Nana Abena Adoma Kontoh, told the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Amo-Yartey that the convict lives at Denu in the Volta Region.

He visited his mother in-law in Kumasi in March this year, and saw the unregistered Toyota saloon car parked at Suame with “a for sale label.”

Quarshie approached the owner, Mr. Ebenezer Frimpong, and expressed interest in buying the car and they settled on the price of GH¢14,800.00.

He convinced Mr. Frimpong to go with him in the car to the Eden Financial Services at Tanoso, a suburb of Kumasi, where he had applied for a loan to collect the money and pay for it. There, he asked for the documents covering the vehicle and the owner innocently obliged.

The convict took the papers to the Manager, Mr. Iddrisu Taawah, and used it as security for the loan.

The prosecution said the Manager while processing the loan application detected that the vehicle’s documents bore a different name from that of Quarshie and sought for explanation.

Quarshie told him the name was that of his brother who shipped the car to the country from the Unites States (US).

Mr. Taawah went ahead to approve of the loan and the money paid to him.

Quarshie again tricked Mr. Frimpong to hand over the ignition key to him under the pretext that Mr. Taawah had asked to be allowed to test drive it.

The convict slipped out of the place, leaving the Mr. Frimpong behind only to later learn that his vehicle had been used as collateral.

A report was made to the police and Qurashie was arrested by the police in the Volta Region and transferred to Kumasi where he admitted the crime in his caution statement.

Meanwhile, the court has ordered the release of the car to Mr. Frimpong.**