A 38-year-old driver, Mark Frimpong Kwakye, has allegedly defrauded three United Kingdom (UK)-based Ghanaians off GH¢195,045.00. The accused, who is a resident of Lapaz, a suburb of Accra, has been remanded into custody after being charged on seven counts of defrauding by an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to the police prosecution officer, Chief Inspector Isaac Anquandah, three of the victims – Grace Acheampong, Charles Owusu Adusei and Noah Kwabena Ofori – out of the six persons allegedly defrauded by Mark are based in the UK. The rest of the victims, Daniel Nuamoah, Cynthia Osei Bonsu and Kwame Gyamfi live in Ghana.
The prosecutor said the suspect defrauded the complainants under a false pretence that he could aid them in the acquisition of visas within a few days to tour Europe. According to the prosecution, Mark Frimpong Kwakye, the suspect, was actually discovered by one of the complainants, Grace Acheampong, who, in 2018, saw an advert for a travel and tour holiday event on ‘Kumasi – online TV Station,’ on which the accused person was the host.
The prosecutor said the suspect in the course of the programme reportedly urged interested persons who wanted to travel or tour any part of European to contact him on the following numbers: 0244957408, 0592313249, 055174570 and 0554935165.
The court was told that Grace Acheampong, although was in Europe, got interested and in the latter part of 2018 visited Ghana to meet the accused person. In the course of their engagement, the accused confirmed to her that the travel and tour business that he announced was genuine, and even showed her some travel documents belonging to other applicants who were about to travel to Europe in a few days.
Grace Acheampong then introduced other the victims to the accused person somewhere in 2019, and without wasting any time, Mark Frimpong Kwakye demanded various sums of monies from them, as their UK visa processing fees.
In 2020, the accused informed Grace Acheampong that the online TV business was also into a lucrative business and collected an amount of US$5,000.00 from her to establish an online TV channel, but that also turned out to be a hoax.
The accused person additionally demanded and collected GH¢22,000 from Kwame Gyamfi, GH¢5,000 from Daniel Nuamoah Fofie, GH¢4,500 from Ann Ama Armah, GH¢29,600 from Noah Kwabena Ofori, and GH¢20,000, US$1,500 and £3,000 from Charles Owusu Edusei.
In another development, Benjamin Odonkor Nartey, an entrepreneur and Travel and Tours operator, has allegedly defrauded seven persons, including teachers, traders and a driver, a total amount of GH¢338,830.00 with the promise to secure travel documents for them to travel to Canada, the United States (US) and Germany, but ended up dumping them in Morocco.
His victims are Owusu Edmund, a trader at Agona Akrofoso in the Ashanti Region, Regina Mensah, a trader in Accra, Pickson Owusu Ntiamoah, a teacher at Asante Mampong, Joyce Ama Ababio, a businesswoman based at Nsuta Beposo, Nelson Agyeman Brempong, a driver at Santrokofi in the Volta Region, Juliet Dassa, a trader in Accra, and Victoria Adokoh Mensah, a teacher in Cape Coast.
The accused had promised to secure visas and flight tickets for the victims, but failed to honour his pledge.
Benjamin Odonkor Nartey was, therefore, arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Ellen Ofei-Ayeh, on Wednesday, July 6, 2022, on seven counts of defrauding by false pretences. He pleaded guilty to five of the counts, but his sentence and conviction were deferred to the end of the trial.
The accused was granted bail to the sum of GH¢300,000.00 with three gainfully employed sureties, and one should be justified. The court further ordered that the sureties must deposit photocopies of their valid identification cards with the Court Registry.
The facts of the case as narrated by the police prosecution officer, Chief Inspector Isaac Anquandah, was that the complainants were allegedly lured into Benjamin’s web in March this year, when the latter made a false representation that he was the owner of a travel and tours company, known as ‘BMAJ GIFTED’.
He claimed to have packages for interested persons seeking to travel to the United State of America (USA), Canada and Schengen countries.
Based on this claim, some of the complainants and their relatives abroad contacted Benjamin on phone, and he confirmed that the travel packages were genuine. The complainants then became convinced and paid various sums of money, totalling GH¢338,830.00, to the accused person. Some made the payment personally to the accused, while others made deposits into his personal Cal Bank account.
The accused collected an amount of GH¢52,500 from Edmund Owusu to secure him a German visa and flight ticket, GH¢65,000 from Juliet Dassa for a US visa and flight ticket, GH¢62,000 from Victoria Adokoh Mensah for a US visa and flight ticket, GH¢20,000 from Nelson Agyeman Brempong for a US visa and flight ticket, GH¢65,000 from Regina Mensah for a Canadian visa and flight ticket, GH¢51,000 from Dickson Ntiamoah for a German visa and flight ticket, and GH¢23,330 from Joyce Ama Ababio for a US visa and flight ticket.
Unfortunately, he said, the accused took the complainants to Morocco to emplane to their various destinations, but abandoned them and returned to Ghana with their passports. The case has been adjourned to August 10, 2022.
