Teacher remanded over visa fraud

Winneba (C/R), June 10, GNA - Ashmond Appiah Owusu, a 57-year-old teacher who allegedly defrauded Mr Solomon Amoah-Asiamah, of the Winneba University College of Education, Winneba in the sum of 12.5 million cedis under the pretext of securing an American visa for his niece has been remanded by a magistrate's court at Winneba. Ashmond, who pleaded not guilty, will reappear before the court presided over by Mr Fatau Yakubu on June 21.

The facts of the case as told to the court by Police Chief Inspector William Kwame Akannah were that Ashmond Owusu collected the amount under the pretext of securing a United States of America visa for one Mabel Akua Otsiwa Amoah, within a period of four weeks but failed. The prosecution told the court that Ashmond Owusu was nowhere to be seen until August 2001, when he told the complainant that Mabel's passport and the visa had been stolen in Accra.

The accused who was residing in Accra went into hiding in Kumasi as well as Asamankese, his home town, from August 2001 until June 5, 2005, when he was arrested upon a tip off.