Court grants entrepreneur bail over fraud

An Accra Circuit Court has granted bail to an entrepreneur, who allegedly took GH₵100,000.00 from a businesswoman under the pretext of importing a 40-footer container of second-hand home appliances from Germany but failed.

Madam Annabel Osei, charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and defrauding by false pretence, pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor, Police Chief Inspector Benson Benneh, did not oppose the bail application made by the counsel for the accused person but said the Court should grant the accused person bail that would compel her to appear before Court at any time.

He said, “the accused person does not have a fixed place of abode because she took the police to a wooden structure where she lives”.

The Court presided over by Evelyn Asamoah, therefore, admitted the accused person to bail in the sum of GH₵200,000.00 with three sureties.

The Court directed that one of the sureties should be a civil servant.

The prosecution was also directed by the Court to file and serve all disclosures and witness statements.

Meanwhile, her accomplice, Kwaku Boadi, who is the father of the accused person, is currently at large.

The matter has been adjourned to April 12, 2023.

The prosecution told the Court that the complainant Madam Margaret Nelson Coffie was a businesswoman while Madam Osei resided at Awoshie in Accra.

The prosecution said about six months ago, one Rita Pokuaa, a witness in the case, introduced Osei, and her father to the complainant as an importer, who imported goods from Germany to Ghana.

It said the accused person and her father convince the complainant that if she could pay GH₵150,000.00 to them, they could supply her with a 40-footer-container of second-hand home appliances such as microwaves, blenders, television sets, rice cookers, kettles etc. from Germany.

The prosecution said in the process, the accused person and her father collected a cash sum of GH₵100,000.00 from the complainant through the accused person’s ADB Bank accounts with a promise of delivering the said goods within two weeks.

It said the accused persons after collecting the said amount, went into hiding and all efforts made by the complainant to trace their whereabouts were not successful on November 30, 2022, a complaint was made to the Police.

The prosecution said a month later, the accused person was arrested and in her cautioned statement, she admitted the offence and refunded GH₵20,000.00 to the Police and the same was handed over to the complainant.