A former community police in the Oti Region, Kwabena Atta Kuma, has been sentenced to 90 days in prison by the Dansoman Circuit Court, for defrauding an electrical engineer of GH¢31,500 in a visa deal.
Kuma, 40, has been ordered by the court presided over by Halima Mrs El-Alawa Abdul-Baasit to refund the money to the complainant within 12 months.
Passing sentence, the judge said she took into consideration that the convict was a first time offender, pleaded guilty at the first instance, and did not waste the court’s time.
Kuma, also a mason, made his first appearance on January 15, 2025 and pleaded guilty to the charge of defrauding by false pretence.
Mrs Abdul-Baasit, then remanded him into police custody and adjourned the case to January 20, 2025.
On January 20, the judge convicted Kuma but deferred sentencing to January 24.
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder told the court that the complainant was a Ghanaian based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
He said in 2013, one Kwame, the younger brother of the convict, and a friend of the complainant, told the complainant that Kuma could help the complainant travel and work in France.
Chief Insp. Wonder said that the complainant showed interest in the deal and the cellphone number of Kuma was given to the complainant.
The court heard that Kuma and the complainant were in constant communication on the mobile phone.
The policeman told the court that Kuma lured the complainant to make payment of various sums totalling GH¢31,800 into a mobile money number 0597435031.
He said after the complainant had made the payments, Kuma asked the complainant to resign from his job in Dubai and come to Ghana.
Chief Insp. Wonder also disclosed that when the complainant arrived in Ghana, Kuma asked the complainant to come to Ivory Coast, and the complainant obliged.
He said upon reaching Ivory Coast, the convict told the complainant that it was a scam, and that the only way the complainant could get his money, was to lure another person, so that the money fraudulently received from that person, would be used to refund the complaint’s money.
The policeman told the court that the complainant told Kuma that he could not help him to defraud another person.
Chief Insp. Wonder stated that all efforts by the complainant to retrieve his money from Kuma was unsuccessful, until December 26, 2024 when the complainant spotted Kuma at Achimota and arrested Kuma with the help of passersby.
The prosecutor further revealed that Kuma admitted the offence during interrogation by the police, but mentioned one Hamza as the person who influenced him to go into that business.
Chief Insp. Wonder said GH¢7,000 was retrieved from Kuma as part payment of the money he defrauded from the complainant.
BY MALIK MALIK SULLEMANA
