Fraudster bags seven-year jail term over N30m fraud

The Lagos State High Court, Igbosere has sentenced a fraudster, Tunde Martins, to seven years’ imprisonment for N30m fraud.

The convicted fraudster had obtained the said sum as a loan from Diamond Bank Plc with a forged certificate of occupancy and refused to pay back.

His journey to prison began after he was arraigned alongside his company, Centre Global Limited by the Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2018 on three counts bordering on obtaining by false pretences, forgery and use of false documents, to which he pleaded not guilty.

During Martins’ trial, the prosecution counsel, Anita Imo, tendered several documents as exhibits and called five witnesses.

According to the Head of Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, Justice Oyefeso found Martins guilty of the offences on September 23, 2020, but deferred ruling to Monday, September 28, 2020.

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While delivering her judgment, Justice Josephine Oyefeso sentenced the convict to seven years’ imprisonment without an option of fine.

She also ordered that his company, Centre Global Limited, be wound up and all the money accrued from it remitted to Diamond Bank Plc.

Meanwhile, Justice Ladiran Akintola of the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan on Monday sentenced one Adeniran Adesina, aka Bella Danner, to six months’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of obtaining money under false pretences.

Adesina was charged to court by the EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office, on one count.

The charge read, “That you, Adeniran Rasheed Adesina (a.k.a. Bella Danner), sometime in 2019, at Ibadan, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, obtained various gift cards worth of $250 from one Luis Barrera, a white male, when you falsely represented to him that you are a white female by name Bella Danner that is in love with him and other pretences, which representations you knew to be false.”

Adesina pleaded guilty to the charge read to him, prompting the EFCC’s counsel, Lanre Abdulrasheed, to pray the court to convict him accordingly.

However, counsel for the defendant, Hammed Opasola, urged the court to consider community service sentence.

Akintola jailed the accused of six months with effect from the date of his arrest, June 30, 2020.

The court also ordered him to refund his victim through the EFCC.

He equally forfeited his Infinix Hot5 mobile phone to the Federal Government.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE