Pastor in court for fraud

Accra, June 14, GNA - Moses Boateng, the founder and leader of the True Christ Worshippers Church in Accra, who allegedly collected 120 million cedis from a businesswoman under the pretext of clearing cars but failed to do so was on Wednesday put before an Accra Circuit Court charged with fraud.

Boateng pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of 180 million cedis with a surety to be justified. The court ordered him to be reporting to the Police twice a day He is to reappear on July 19.

Prosecuting Chief Inspector Margaret Awuni told the court that, during the year 2003, Boateng approached the complainant, a businesswoman to assist him with an amount of 50 million cedis to clear his cars from the Tema Port.

Chief Inspector Awuni said the complainant believed in Boateng so much so that she gave him the said amount. Few days later Boateng returned with an unregistered BMW saloon car as one of the cars that he had been able to clear from the Port. A month later the Boateng went to the complainant for an extra amount of 70 million cedis to enable him to retrieve some cars, which he alleged officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) had seized.

The Prosecutor said Boateng succeeded in collecting the 70 million and promised to refund it later after the sale of the cars. He, however, went into hiding after collecting the money and all effort by the complainant to trace him to return the money failed. A report was made to the Police and he was arrested at his hide out.

Boateng maintained that he only took 20 million cedis and had refunded same.