Court remands two for fraud

An Accra Circuit Court on Thursday remanded two persons into police custody for conspiring to commit a crime, defrauding by false pretence, money laundering and forgery of documents.

Razak Debbie, unemployed and Lukman Afuwapes, a student, pleaded not guilty and would reappear on February 8.

Superintendent of Police, Kweku Bempah, told the court that the complainant is a designer and a United States citizen.

He said during the year 2014, the complainant visited Google hangout on social media and saw the profile of Razak Debbie with a picture as beautiful young white lady. He sent her a friend request and the complainant accepted it.

He said Razak later sent a love request to the complainant and the complainant gladly accepted and had been chatting with the accused, whom he thought was a lady.

He said the accused told the complainant that, she was an American citizen but in Ghana shortly to enable her take care of a three kilogrammes gold inheritance, which her parents left for her (Razak).

“The accused further agreed to marry the complainant and started demanding monies to take care of shipping documents, plane tickets and alleged High Court fines in respect of the three kilogrammes gold, which he intended selling to the complainant,” he added.

The Prosecution said as a result of that, Razak sent a forged High Court order and Ghana Immigration Service documents to the complainant for payment of court fines and shipping fees of the gold.

Supt. Bempah said Razak started collecting monies from the complainant through forged identification cards, which was in three different names, and received a total cash amount of $87,774.36 through Vigo, Western Union and Moneygram.

The Prosecution said in May, 2017, the accused person realizing his activities were becoming suspicious, forwarded a Societe Generale Ghana Bank account number belonging to Lukman to the complainant to pay in the rest of the money he had demanded.

He said the complainant further sent an amount of $42,831 into Lukman’s account.

He said Lukman after receiving a total amount of $130,605.39 informed the complainant that Razak’s passport has been seized by the Police and therefore could not travel together with the gold to the United States of America as planned.

The Prosecution said on August 25, 2017, the complainant arrived in Ghana to meet Razak, who posed as a lady

He said a report was subsequently made to the Police and on December 21, the same year and Lukeman was arrested.

He then led the Police to arrest Razak, they admitted the offence in their caution statements, and mentioned one Ibrahim Adams Larry now at large as their accomplice.

During investigations, it was established that as a result of these activities, Lukeman received a total of $198,332 in addition to the amount complainant paid directly into his account.

They however could not assist the Police to arrest Ibrahim.