Court sentences carpenter to 30 months jail term for fraud

A Shari’a Court in Kano, on Wednesday, sentenced a 25-year-old carpenter, Basiru Yusuf, to 30 months imprisonment for defrauding one Ibrahim Alhassan, a Point of Sale (POS) agent, of the sum of N150,000.

Yusuf of Aujarawa Quarters, Kano, was convicted of two offences of criminal breach of trust and cheating after he pleaded guilty to the charges.

The Presiding Judge, Malam Nura Yusuf-Ahmad, consequently sentenced the convict to two years in the Correctional Centre or a fine of N60,000 on the first count of breach of trust.

Nura aĺso sentenced the convict to six months in the Correctional Centre or a fine of N10,000 for cheating and added that the sentences were to run concurrently.

He also ordered the convict to pay the nominal complainant N150,000 as restitution and an additional amount of N55,000, which was expended while trying to arrest the former.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Mr Aliyu Abideen, informed the court that the defendant committed the offences on Feb.1, at Yankaba Motor Park, Kano.

He said that the defendant on the fateful day went to the complainant (Alhassan), who is a POS agent, and deceitfully gave him a black nylon containing some white and brown papers in currency note size, pretending it was N500,000.

“The defendant told the complainant to transfer the sum of N500,000 to his monie point account bearing the name of a Popular Provision Shop.

“In the process the complainant transferred the sum of N150,000 to the defendant’s account and promised to transfer the remaining money later, that he only had N150,000 in his account”.

Abideen said that the complainant later discovered that the supposed transactiom and N500,000 in the nylon bag was a hoax.

The prosecutor said that the offences committed contravened the provisions of sections 203 and 206 of the Kano State Shari’a Penal Code.