Businessman before court for fraud
Gomoa Dawurampong (Central Region) 28 November 2000
A man who posed as an official of the French Embassy in Accra tasked with the responsibility to recruit teachers for a course in France, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment in hard labour by the Dawurampong circuit court.
John Mark Asno from Logba Alakpeti in the Volta Region pleaded guilty to charges of pretending to be a public officer and defrauding by false pretences.
According to the Prosecution, the accused presented himself to the Gomoa district director of education, Mrs Rose Newman as a cultural attaché at the French Embassy tasked by the Ambassador to recruit teachers for a course in French on government scholarship.
The unsuspecting Mrs Newman directed the accused to some JSS French teachers in Apam and the accused demanded 183,000 cedis from Mr Daniel Essuman, a French teacher at Apam Methodist JSS as a processing fee for the scholarship documents.
Mr Essuman, according to the prosecution, made a part payment of 60,000 cedis.
On hearing that the accused also approached Mr Lucas Nkrumah of Catholic JSS and Miss Gladys Agbemenu of the Salvation Army JSS and collected 15,000 cedis and 3,500 cedis respectively from them, Mr Essuman became suspicious and rang the Embassy to verify Alakpeti's activities.
The Embassy said the accused was not known to them and that it had no knowledge of such a scholarship scheme.
The prosecution said following messages sent round the district the accused was arrested at Gomoa Obuasi on October 24.
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Businessman before court for fraud
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 November 2000
A 40-year-old businessman accused of collecting 7.2 million cedis from an exporter under the pretext of supplying him with used batteries, on Monday appeared before a circuit tribunal in Accra.
Bright Fianu, who also posed as an official of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), pleaded not guilty to posing as a public officer and defrauding by false pretences.
He was granted 10 million cedis bail. The case has been rescheduled to December 4.
The prosecution said in July this year, Fianu introduced himself to Mr Tonny Benneh, the complainant, as a BNI person.
He told Mr Benneh that he could, with the assistance of his superior officer, supply him with any quantity of used batteries for export.
According to the prosecution, the accused person collected various sums of money on different dates from the complainant, claiming to make payments at certain government automobile workshops and corporations, to facilitate the supply.
Mr Benneh paid Fianu a total of 7.2 million cedis. However, when the consignments were not supplied on the date promised, Mr Benneh conducted investigations and found out that he had been defrauded.
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