SETH DUMOGA , the Deputy Director of Finance and Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture who was to be arrested with a bench warrant, yesterday went to an Accra Circuit Court in the company of his lawyer to have the warrant rescinded.
The director was expected to appear before the court presided over by Audrey Korcuvi-Tay to answer charges of defrauding by false pretence last Thursday, but failed to do so.
This made the prosecutor, DSP Idan Dery, apply for a bench warrant for his arrest.
The accused, allegedly afraid of being arrested, rushed to the court and his lawyer succeeded in making the judge withdraw the warrant after explaining why his client was not in court.
His lawyer, Mr. Quist, explained to the judge that his client was not aware the case was being heard in court that day as there was no notice to that effect.
He further submitted that if his client was granted bail, he would make himself available to the court throughout the trial.
The judge, after granting their request, adjourned the case to November 2 for hearing.
The director and his Chinese accomplice, Tang Hong, allegedly defrauded Ernest Nunoo, an estate developer, in 2009 under the pretext of transferring ownership of two plots of lands located at M-Plaza at Roman Ridge in Accra to him.
Dumoga allegedly introduced his Chinese friend to the complainant as the owner of a company called the CAITEC DELTA, which owned the two plots of land.
However, after receiving GH¢100, 000, being part of the price of the land from the complainant, Dumoga failed to honour his promise and all efforts to retrieve the money proved futile.
Police investigations disclosed that the company was not in existence and that the Chinese man the accused introduced to the complainant as Tang Hong was not the real Tang Hong. Meanwhile, the said Tang Hong has been on the run since the complainant detected the fraud.
According to facts in court, the complainant is an estate developer residing at Haatso while Seth Dumoga is a lawyer and also the Deputy Director of Finance and Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Accra.
The facts indicated that sometime in 2009, the accused person, with Tang Hong, approached the complainant in his office and introduced himself as a worker of a company called CAITEC DELTA Company Ltd located at East Legon.
He told the complainant that Tang Hong owned two plots of land – plot numbers AA7 and AA8 - which lay close to M-PLAZA and were up for sale.
Dumoga allegedly provided title deeds to justify his claim and this convinced the complainant, who agreed to pay 1,500,000 US dollars for the two plots.
The accused reportedly persuaded Nunoo to issue cash cheques in his name 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 accused managed to convince the complainant to pay 1,000,000.00 US dollars out of the 1,500,000.00 into his personal account to enable him do the necessary transfer.
However, the complainant paid a bankers draft of 1,400,000.00US dollars into CAITEC DELTA Company's account. In addition, he paid $100,000.00 into the personal account of the accused as demanded at Barclays Bank, Ridge branch.
The facts added that as soon as the money was paid into his account, the accused withdrew all the money the same day.
When the complainant visited the site, he was allegedly chased out by a security man placed on the land by the rightful owners.
It then donned on him that he had been duped and immediately instructed his bankers to stop the payment of the 1,400,000.00 US dollars into CAITEC DELTA Company's account.
Mr. Nunoo immediately traced the accused to collect his $100,000.00 but he could not provide the money.
After persistent demands, the finance director refunded GH¢28,000.00 and pleaded with the complainant to give him four months to pay the balance. But since 2009 up to date the accused has failed to pay the rest of the amount.
A report was made to the police and Dumoga was arrested.
He allegedly admitted the offence and pleaded with the police to be given time to refund the money but has again failed to honour it.
By Mary Anane
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