Court remands policeman for defrauding colleagues and his uncle

Aflao (V/R), Sept. 20, GNA - An Aflao Circuit Court on Monday remanded in custody a Policeman accused of defrauding a number of people including his colleagues and his uncle.

Robert Onny, 32, a Lance Corporal, lost the chance for bail when the prosecutors handling the four dockets on him informed the court that about six more fraud cases about him were being investigated. Onny, now on interdiction, was said to have evaded a police court martial on his conduct recently.

"Too bad, you are beyond redemption and we cannot give you bail now", the presiding judge, Group Captain Martin Obeng-Ntim (rtd) told the accused.

His plea was not taken and would be brought before the court again on October 2, this year.

Mr Kofi Frimpong, a Police Chief Inspector at Aflao, told the court that in August, last year, an Accra-based electrician, who was looking for an Opel saloon car to buy, was advised by his brother to contact Onny, his friend, to buy the car for him. The court heard that Onny offered to buy the car in Lome, Togo for the complainant and collected 500,000 cedis to enable him begin the process.

Mr Frimpong said in September, the same year, Onny ordered the complainant to transfer 15 million cedis into his account at the Agricultural Development Bank at Denu but failed to buy the car and instead began playing hide and seek with the complainant. Mrs Mary Assan, a Police Inspector, also at Aflao further told the court that Onny in November, last year, convinced a Police Constable stationed at Keta that he could buy him an Opel Cadet Saloon car at 12 million cedis in Lome.

She said the accused collected seven million cedis with the agreement to receive the five million cedis balance upon the delivery of the car, which he never provided and instead gave excuses. Mrs Assan said that same year, the accused collected one million cedis from another police officer also based at Keta for a Nokia cell phone he promised to buy for him at two million cedis but failed to honour the deal.

She said in July, last year, the accused received 47.8 million cedis from his uncle, a pensioner based at Kadjebi-Nkonya to buy him 900 bags of cement from Aflao but he delivered only 630 bags valued at 30.7 million cedis and pocketed the remaining 17.1 million cedis. 20 Sept. 06