Timber dealer defrauds four persons of 98.5 million cedis

Accra, Nov. 7, GNA - Mr Justice Frank Manu, a High Court Judge sitting as an additional Circuit Court Judge, on Tuesday remanded a timber dealer in police custody until November 16 when he appeared before him for defrauding four persons of nearly 100 million cedis. Felix Owusu Banahene, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, succeeded in taking a total amount of 28.3 million cedis from three of them under the pretext of securing for them British visas.

The three are Kabukie Ocansey, a caterer, Sophestina Monka Morgans, a hairdresser and Faisal Mohammed Lawal, a student. The facts of the matter as narrated by the prosecution were that on June 15 this year, Banahene took 16 million cedis from Ocansey, 8.7 million cedis from Morgans and 400 dollars from Lawal with the promise of getting travel documents to enable them to travel to the United Kingdom.

The prosecution stated that when Banahene could not honour his promise, the three approached him for a refund.

According to the prosecution, Banahene then contacted Oscar Glover, the fourth victim who is an importer, and collected from him suits made in China worth 70.2 million cedis for sale.

He did this with the intention to use the proceeds to pay the three persons.

After collecting the items, the accused person failed to account for them. On November 2, the four victims reported the matter to the police and he was arrested.