Marketing officer in court for fraud

A marketing officer who used his house as a collateral but later sold it to a businessman on Monday appeared at an Accra Circuit Court charged with fraud.

John Baffoe Bonnie pleaded not guilty before the court presided over by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills.

The court, however, remanded him into police custody to reappear on November 3.

The fact as presented by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Aidan Dery was that in 2005, Bonnie took a loan of GH 2,000 from a private financial institution and used his house located at Tema as collateral.

Later Bonnie approached the complainant, Mr Prince T. Darko that he was selling his house.

The complainant bought the house at 200,000 dollars and made part payment of 180,000 dollars and rented the house to some expatriates.

The prosecution said the tenants woke up only to see a note pasted on the wall of the house asking them to quit since the landlord had defaulted in paying back a loan he took.

ASP Dery said the tenant informed the complainant who contacted Bonnie who pleaded with the complainant to give him some time to refund the money but he failed to honour his promise.

On March 2 a complaint was lodged with the Commercial Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service and Bonnie was arrested. In his caution statement he admitted the offence and pleaded for time again to refund the money.

Soon after he was granted bail by the police, Bonnie went into hiding and his surety was compelled to produce him.