Stephen Chukwudi, an unemployed man, has bagged a three-year prison sentence by an Ikeja Special Offenses Court on Wednesday for defrauding a Point of Sale (PoS) operator out of N88,000.
Following his plea bargain agreement to an amended charge of obtaining money by false pretence, Justice Mojisola Dada sentenced the convict to three years in prison.
Dada ordered the convict to serve out his term or pay a N150,000 fine.
She also ordered the convict to refund the outstanding payment to the complainant and to write an undertaken to be of good behaviour upon his release from the correctional centre.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Counsel, Mr Ahmed Yerima, in the review of fact, submitted that the commission received an intelligence report that a group of boys defrauded various PoS operators in the Obalende area in Lagos.
Yerima told the court that the PoS operator transferred the sum of money to the defendant’s account with an assurance to give her the cash equivalent, a representation, he knew to be false.
According to him, the defendant took to his heels after his account was credited and all attempt made by the complainant to retrieve her money was futile.
Yerima submitted that the defendant was arrested after the complainant reported the case at the commission and a lien was placed on his account.
The offence contravened Section 8 (a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.