The Ho Circuit Court on Wednesday, September 23, sentenced a musician, Reuben Ansah, to two years imprisonment with hard labour for lottery fraud.
Master Ansah, 20, a resident of Akatsi, is one of three persons standing trial for various acts of impersonation and defrauding by false pretences in relation to operations of the National Lottery Authority (NLA).
The court, presided over by His Honour, Felix Datsomor, also fined him 200 penalty units for the offence of impersonation or in default serve 12 months in prison with hard labour.
The remaining two accused persons, Godwin Agbenyefia and Kelvin Kwame Abouze, who pleaded not guilty to their respective charges of impersonation and defrauding by false pretences, were denied bail by the court after their counsel made an application for bail. They will reappear in court on October 8, 2020.
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The accused persons, who are all friends, were said to have created several social media platforms including Facebook and Whatsapp with the logo and pictures of the staff of the NLA and sometimes pictures of other people to defraud the unsuspecting public.
They succeeded in defrauding their victims of huge sums of money including GH¢9,200 from Faustina Sitsofe Azameti and John Teitey.
The Volta Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Corporal Prince Dogbatse, said the Service was keenly monitoring the activities of lotto fraudsters in the region and taking pragmatic steps to apprehend persons involved in such acts.
He, meanwhile, advised the public to be “wary of miscreants who parade themselves as staff of NLA and report such persons to the Police/NLA for the necessary action.”
