Four arraigned over forgery of certificates

Four persons facing charges of conspiracy to commit crime, possession of forged documents, and forgery of documents were, on Tuesday, granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court.

They reportedly conspired to forge a Bachelor of Science Certificate from the University of Cape Coast, a transcript, an admission letter and a student identity card from the Entrepreneurship Training Institute (ETI) with the name David Ronney.

Prince Sylvanus, Sheye Amoli, Israel Abioye, all students and Nigerian nationals; and a Ghanaian publisher, Jones Thomson Aggor, pleaded not guilty to the charges and they were granted bail in the sum of GH?20,000.00 with two sureties each.

The Court asked them to report to the CID Headquarters every Tuesday, while Prince, Sheye and Israel were additionally to deposit their passports with the CID because they are foreigners.

Police Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia, presenting the facts to the Court, said that the Police had information last month that Prince was printing and selling university certificates to the public.

He said an undercover agent was, therefore, arranged to meet him and request for a certificate from the Wisconsin International University College, for which he charged US$4,500.

He told the Court that an advance payment of US$2,000 was made to Prince, who told the agent that the certificate would be ready in two weeks.

Police Chief Inspector Agbemehia said on March 19, Prince met the witness at East Legon, in Accra, to deliver the certificate and take his balance of US$ 2,500.

Prince was, consequently, arrested in the process and a search in his bag revealed one Bachelor of Science Certificate bearing the name of a witness in the case, which was purportedly issued by the University of Cape Coast on December 13, 2014, a transcript of the witness, student ID card and an admission letter from ETI.

He said Prince mentioned Sheye and Israel as the source of his documents.

The Prosecution told the Court that Israel also mentioned Jones as the one who printed the certificate and other documents for him at GH?1,500.00.

Police Chief Inspector Agbemehia said Jones in his statement admitted printing the certificate and the transcript, saying that was the fourth time he was printing a university certificate for Israel.