Two jailed six months for forgery of document

An Accra Magistrate Court on Thursday handed six months’ jail sentences each to two persons for conspiracy to commit crime, forgery of documents and possession of forged documents. Emmauel Baah-Fenning and David Gyan pleaded not guilty before the court presided over by Madam Christiana Donkor.

They are both to serve six months each for conspiracy, while Gyan is to serve six months for forgery of document and Emmanuel, six months for possession of forged documents, all to run concurrently.

Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia told the court that on October 31, 2013, the Documentation and Visa Fraud Section of the CID Headquarters received information from the German Embassy that Emmanuel submitted certain travelling documents to facilitate his visa application at the embassy.

He said he presented a visa application together with a letter of invitation purported to have been issued from the University of Seigen in Germany to facilitate his visa application and during verification it was detected to be forged.

He told the court that, Emmanuel was arrested and during investigation he stated that he applied and got the invitation to attend a Model UN Conference in Germany, a programme meant to inculcate the sense of problem solving through the UN adopted standard.

The prosecution said Emmanuel then showed the letter to David who convinced him that they needed to make some changes on the invitation letter to suit the visa application standard. He said Emmanuel further stated that he paid GH¢ 200.00 to David for the changes he made on the invitation letter and presented same to the embassy, but he was arrested.

Police Chief Inspector Agbemehia said in the cause of the investigation, David was also arrested and he admitted the offence. He said David stated that, Emmanuel confronted him with an invitation letter for University of Seigen for help and when he read through it, he realised the letter did not speak well about Emmanuel and therefore they decided and agreed to make some changes on it to favour his acquisition of the visa.

The prosecution told the court that, investigations revealed that, Emmanuel was aware of the changes made in the letter, but decided to present it to the embassy to deceive the officials.