Trader in court for fraud

A trader, Cecelia Nyame was on Wednesday put before an Accra Circuit Court for defrauding by false pretence.

Cecelia was said to have defrauded one Francis Sarpong Dakudze of an amount of GH¢30,000.00.

She pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail in the sum of GH¢50,000.00 with one surety to reappear on July 24.

The facts of the case as presented by Police Inspector E. Haligah were that the complainant Francis is a contractor while the accused is a trader.

He said during the month of August 2014, a witness in this case, Comfort Atamudzie Mefanawo Awanyo, who is a landlady, decided to sell her house and discussed the issue with the accused who was by then a tenant in the house.

The prosecution said the accused then informed the said landlady that she can get someone to buy the house.

A few weeks later, the accused person went to inform the landlady that she had got someone who wanted to buy the house but the buyer is demanding for documents covering the house before making any payment.

Inspector Haligah told the court that the witness gave out the documents to the accused person to be shown to the complainant.

He said the accused took the documents to the complainant and claimed she had bought the house from the landlady at the cost of GH¢80,000.00 but will sell it at the cost of GH¢ 70,000,00 to defray some debts and further asked the complainant to pay GH¢30,000,00 as part payment to enable her to pay some tenants in the house to vacate the premises after which he could pay the balance of GH¢40,000,00 later.

However, several months after the accused person collected the above mentioned amount, she failed to honour her part of the bargain and started giving flimsy excuses to the complainant.

The prosecution said the complainant, suspecting a foul play demanded a refund of his money which the accused failed to do.

On June 28, a report was made to the police and Cecelia was arrested and after investigations she was charged.