Con man sentenced to 10 years imprisonment
The Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a man to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour for fraud.
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Benjamin Anorbigah, the convict, was found guilty of defrauding 73 people to the tune of GH¢55,825.00 under the pretext of recruiting them into the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces.
The convict pleaded not guilty to 117 charges, ranging from defrauding by false pretence, forgery of official documents to uttering forged documents. His plea was not taken.
In passing the sentence, Mr Francis Obiri said Anorbigah had brought the name of the Police Administration, which has its slogan as “Service With Integrity”, into disrepute.
He said such characters should not be entertained in the society and, therefore, must be punished in accordance with the law.
Prosecution
Prosecuting, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Aidan Dery, told the court that the complainants in the case were 73 men and women from all over the country, with majority of them living in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
He said between February and August 2011, the convict spread false information that he had the capacity to recruit interested individuals into the security forces on protocol basis for a fee.
On that basis, the prosecution said all the complainants showed interest and paid various sum of money amounting to GH¢55,825.00 to the convict either directly or through other applicants.
Mr Dery said on receipt of the money, the convict issued forged police recruitment appointment letters on a purported police letter head to the victims indicating that they should report at the Pwalugu Police Training School on June 11, 2011 to commence their basic police training.
He said when the victims had purchased all the necessary items listed on the prospectus provided by the convict for the training exercise, the convict issued another forged letter to inform them that the reporting date at the depot had been postponed to October 8, 2011.
When the victims later suspected that they had been defrauded, they made a complaint to the police and the convict was arrested and arraigned before the court.