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21.10.2011 General News

Arrest warrant for lawyer

By Helena Selby - Ghanaian Chronicle
Arrest warrant for lawyer
21.10.2011 LISTEN

An Accra circuit court has  issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the Deputy Director for Finance and Administration of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Seth Dumoga, for allegedly defrauding an estate developer of an amount of about $100,000.

The accused person, Seth Dumoga, who is also lawyer, was accused of committing the crime with his Chinese accomplice, Tang Hong, who is currently at large.

The accused person and his accomplice are alleged to have obtained the consent of the complainant, Ernest Nunoo, to part with the said amount by a false pretense that they would transfer the ownership of a parcel of land at M-Plaza Hotel to him.

He is facing two counts of conspiracy and defrauding by false pretense before the court presided over by Mrs. Audry Kocuvie-Tay.

The underling facts are that sometime in 2009 the accused person, in the company of a Chinese man, approached the complainant in his office and introduced himself as a worker in a company called CAITEC DELTA Company Limited at East Legon, owned by the Chinese man, whose name was given as Tang Hong.

The prosecutor, DSP Dery, noted that the accused person made a representation to the complainant that the Chinese man was the owner of two plots of land – plots number AA7 and AA8 – lying close to M-Plaza Hotel, and that the Chinese man was selling the land.

According to him, the accused person produced title deeds to justify his claim, adding that the complainant, having been convinced, entered into negotiations with the accused person and his accomplice, and arrived at a price of $1,500,000 for the two plots of land.

'The accused person persuaded the complainant to issue cash cheques for the payment of land through him, but the complainant insisted that since the transaction was in the name of CAITEC DELTA Company, he would rather pay by bankers draft into the company's account,' the prosecutor told the court.

The accused person objected to it, and suggested to the complainant that he should pay the money into his personal account, since he was also the lawyer representing the transaction.

After further deliberations, it was agreed that the complainant pay $100.000 out of the $1,500,000 into the personal account of the accused person, to enable him do the necessary transfer of the land to the complainant,' the prosecutor indicated.

The prosecutor further noted that the complainant paid $1,400,000 in the form of a bankers draft into the account of CAITEC Delta Company, and the remaining $100,000 into the personal account of the accused person at the Ridge Branch of the Barclays Bank, as requested by the accused person.

ASP Dery said as soon as the $100,000 was deposited in the accused person's account, he withdrew all the money same day, and that the complainant, after these payments, decided to take possession of the land, but was chased out by a security man guarding the place.

'The complainant then realised that the representation made by the accused person was false, as such, instructed his bankers to stop payment of the $1,400,000 into CAITEC DELTA Company's account.

The complainant, almost immediately, traced the accused person for a refund of the $100,000 he demanded for the transfer of the land, but the accused person failed to pay,' he stressed.

The prosecutor asserted that after persistent demands, the accused person was able to refund $28,000, and pleaded with the complainant to give him four months to pay the rest, but since 2009 till date, the accused person had failed to pay the rest of the amount, which is $122,000 to complainant.

He mentioned that a report was made, and upon his arrest, the accused admitted the offence and pleaded with police to give him time to pay, but has since failed. Investigations conducted revealed that CAITEC DELTA Company is nonexistent.

Narrating further, it was revealed that the Chinese man, who the accused person introduced to the complainant as 'Tang Hong' was not the real Tang Hong, and has since been at large, adding that after investigations, the accused person was charged with the offence.

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