A trader on Tonaton.com has been slapped with 16 years imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court.

The trader, Mary Abena Serwah Afedzi, was sentenced today by the court presided over by Ellen Ofei-Aryeh on two counts, defrauding by false pretences, contrary to Section 23 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

The court directed that Mary served eight years prison term on each count in hard labour and the sentence s are to run concurrently.

Mary sentence also starts on the day that she would be re-arrested, as the convict had jumped bail before the court’s decision.

The court found Mary guilty on the accounts that were leveled against, since she, together with two others currently at large, defrauded the Principal Administrator of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Kumasi, Joseph Owusu Banahene.

According to the brief facts presented by the Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fuseini Yakubu, before the court, Mary, together with her accomplices, defrauded Mr Banahene through the purported sale of a car they posted on an online marketing platform, Tonaton.com.

He stated that on January 26, 2020, Mr Banahene (complainant) saw a Toyota Corolla saloon car on sale on Tonaton.com, and as a result, the Principal Administrator called the contact number attached to the post.

ASP Yakubu told the court that the complainant spoke to one of Mary’s accomplices, by the name Nana, alias David, and a price of GH¢34,000 was agreed upon the said car.

He continued that Mr Banahene, together with two others – Angela Gyasi-Nsiah and Patrick Kofi Asamoah (witnesses in the case) – set off the next day, January 27, 2021, from Kumasi to Accra with the hope of purchasing the car in question.

Unfortunately, he said, the complainant and his company, upon reaching Accra, called Nana and he directed them to a location at Achimota called Charcoal Station to inspect the said car.

After the inspection, Nana further directed them to another accomplice, Boadi, who also urged them to accompany him to the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to make payment for the car to his wife, Mary.

The complainant obliged and went to GIMPA to pay cash of GH¢30,000 to Mary in the presence of the witnesses.

Regrettably, the Prosecutor said, the three only returned to the car park to find that the said vehicle was not there, while Mary had also vanished without a trace at the place where the money was paid to her.

Mr Banahene lodged a complaint with the Auto Theft Unit of Tue Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service, and on May 5, 2020, Mary was arrested.

ASP Yakubu added that Mary admitted to the crime in her caution statement to the police during interrogation, but couldn’t account for the money collected from the complainant.

By Adelaide Oforiwa Adimer