Four men before court for defrauding businessman
Four persons who allegedly defrauded a Dubai-based businessman of US$325,000 are standing trial at the Accra Circuit Court.
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Mark Kojo Conry, Aikins Ameho, Richard Obeng Osei and Kofi Amehonu have been accused of selling 13 kilos of fake gold to the victim.
They pleaded not guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by false pretence and attempt to commit crime.
Application for bail
At last Tuesday’s sitting, an application for bail by counsel for the accused persons, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) K.K. Amoah (Retd), was refused by the court.
The court, presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh refused the bail application after the prosecution pleaded for more time to complete its investigations.
It adjourned the case to August 30, 2016 to consider the bail application.
Facts
The facts of the case, as presented by the prosecutor, Chief Superintendent of Police Mr Duuti Tuaruka, are that two alleged accomplices of the accused persons, now on the run, were introduced by another Dubai-based businessman to the victim as small-scale miners.
Mr Tuaruka said the two accomplices, Emmanuel Kwesi Dotse and Samuel Kofi Grant Kontoh, informed the victim that they were selling some gold bars and the victim expressed interest in buying them.
On June 29, the prosecutor explained that Dotse and Kontoh took the victim to Iteltec Ghana Limited, where he met Conry.
“The three showed the victim a metallic box which they claimed contained 11 bars of gold. Dotse had in his hand two bars of metals coated in yellow, which the three told the victim were part of the gold in the metallic box,” he said.
Some of the alleged fake gold bars
According to Mr Tuaruka, an assay was done on the two coated metals and the assayer confirmed that the metals were gold.
“The victim was asked by the assayer to go to the accountant, who was in another office and pay for the cost of the assay report.
“Unknown to the victim, the three individuals had swapped the gold which was assayed with some yellowish coated metals and kept them in a locked metallic box,’’ the prosecutor said.
Cash payment
After this, Mr Tuaruka explained that Dotse, Kontoh and Conry took the victim to his hotel where he gave them US$325,000 for the gold, after which he later detected that he had been duped and returned to Dubai.
Another attempt
The prosecutor added that the three men contacted the victim with a different phone number and told him that they had another set of gold for sale.
“The victim feigned interest, alerted the police and arrived in Ghana on August 8, 2016. The next day he met Conry, Aikins Amehonu, Osei and Kofi Ameho at the Golden Tulip Hotel.
“After a brief meeting, the parties agreed to meet at Iteltec Ghana Limited for an assay to be done on the gold. The Police immediately proceeded to the scene and arrested them,” the prosecutor said.