Court jails Mobile Money thief for two years

A 22-year old unemployed man, Derrick Buckman has been sentenced to two years imprisonment in hard labour by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for stealing an amount of GHc 1,840.00 through a mobile money transfer scam.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing and was convicted on his own plea.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako told the court presided over by Mrs Dorinda Arthur Smith that, the complainant Ms Deborah Boakoh is a baker and a resident of Kokorbra, a suburb of Kumasi while the convict is a resident of Abura, a suburb of Assin Bereku.

He said at about 1042 hours last Thursday, the complainant reported a case of stealing to the police, and that she had received a call from a supposed MTN merchant who indicated to her that he had mistakenly transferred an amount of GHc170.00 into her mobile money account.

The Prosecution said the complainant then checked her balance and found that, it was not true, but later the accused sent her a message purporting to be coming from the MTN office indicating that he had blocked her account.

According to Prosecution the complainant called to confront the convict as to why her account had been blocked and after a heated argument, Buckman asked her to hold on while he consults an MTN official to unblock her account.

He said the convict then posed as an official and asked the complainant to follow some procedures to unblock her account after which she realised an amount of GHc 1,840.00 had been transferred from her account to a Vodafone number.

Chief Inspector Bediako said the complainant reported the matter to his father, one Nana Adu II, who in turn reported the incident to a Vodafone Office in Tarkwa which then blocked the convict’s Vodafone number.

Mr Bediako said Vodafone then circulated messages for the arrest of the user of the number in their various offices and the accused was arrested when he visited one the offices to unblock his sim.