A thirty-six year old man, Solomon Oppong, alias Ena Kissi has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment for defrauding, money laundering and possessing forged documents.
The Court presided over by Her Ladyship, Georgina Mensah-Datsa, sentenced the Accused to ten years on each count to run concurrently.
The facts of the case as presented by the Prosecution are that the Complainant, Adam Sanders, is a 43 year old retired commercial fisherman and a citizen of Australia.
The Complainant came to Ghana and filed a complaint to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) through the Australian High Commission, Accra.
The Complainant met ‘Ena Kissi’ on the internet and had been communicating with ‘her’ on Skype for two and a half years.
According to the Complainant, ‘Ena Kissi’ stays at Kasoa and over that period he helped ‘Ena’ and her family financially.
He made a decision to come to Ghana and meet ‘her’ in September 2017. He could not hear from ‘Ena’ just before he came to Ghana, but communication resumed approximately 12 days after his arrival, and he met ‘her’ on 30th November, 2017 at a hotel in Osu.
He realised that the person in the photos he had been communicating with whilst in Australia, was not the same person he met in Ghana, and this made him suspicious of the lady ‘Ena’.
The Complainant attached documents purported to be from the Australian Embassy, UAE Embassy, Ghana Revenue Authority and Ministry of Mines and Natural Resources, which the Accused used in defrauding him.
He indicated that, he had sent a total of AUD $80,000.00 to ‘Ena Kissi’ (Accused) between 1st November, 2017 and 3rd November, 2017 and other small amounts of AUD $7,500.00. He said the amounts were sent to an account in the name of ‘Ena Kissi’ at Barclays Bank Ghana Limited, Lapaz Branch.
The Accused was arrested on 6th December, 2017 and underwent a full trial.
The Court also ordered that part of the money the Accused received from the Complainant, which is in his Fidelity Bank account, GHC52,105.00, be transferred to the Complainant’s bank account.
The Accused has also been ordered by the Court to pay GHC 10,000.00 as compensation to the Complainant to defray his travel expenses of coming to Ghana to testify in court.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
