Man remanded for duping a dumb man

Sunyani Oct 13, GNA- A Sunyani Circuit Court has remanded a 39-year-old driver, Kwame Diawuo Bonney, for defrauding a deaf man of more than 45 million cedis under the pretext of assisting him to acquire a visa to the United States.

Diawuo will reappear on October 21, 2003. Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Alex Yartey Tawiah told the court that the accused lives at South Ridge in Sunyani whilst the victim, Mr Bernard Kwarteng, 23, lives with the father at New town, also in Sunyani.

He said in 2001, Diawuo approached the father of the deaf, Mr Kwasi Kwarteng, a 50-year-old driver of Produce Buying Company (PBC) and told him he knew of an association in Accra that assisted the deaf to acquire visa to the United States to attend school.

The accused demanded two million cedis to begin with the processing of the travelling documents and later introduced him (Mr Kwarteng) to one Mr Jonathan Amoah of Ghana National Association for the Deaf as the one in charge of the processing of the documents.

ASP Tawiah said in June last year the accused came back to Mr Kwarteng and told him they were in the final stages of acquiring the visa and needed money to buy the ticket for the trip and also to make some transfers to the school where the son would attend in the United States.

Diawuo collected 45 million cedis from Mr Kwarteng in the hope of sending his son to the school in the United States but when the latter realized that the procurement of the visa was being delayed he went to enquire from the accused.

The accused told him armed robbers attacked him while on his way to Sunyani and stole the son's passport containing the visa as well as the remaining amount.

ASP Tawiah said all efforts by the father to get his money back from the accused proved futile and he reported the matter to the police.