By Paul Iyoghojie
Lagos – An Igbosere Magistrate’s Court sitting at the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria has sentenced a Lagos-based Car dealer, Ganiyu Ishatayo, 46, to six years imprisonment.
He was sentenced for defrauding his customer, Oscar Lewis of the sum of N4.6m under false pretence.
The convict was jailed by the Magistrate, Azeez Alogba after he found the convict guilty of the two count charges of obtaining money and stealing preferred against him by the Police at the Police Special Fraud Unit, PSFU, located at Milverton Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and the facts of the case presented before the Court by the Police Counsel, Amedu Adoga.
Magistrate Alogba, however, gave the convict an option to either pay back the N4.6m in dispute to the complainant and serve two years imprisonment or serve the six years imprisonment if he could not pay back the money to the complainant.
Trouble started for the convict, a Car dealer at Ojokoro area of Lagos in November, 2017, in Lagos, Nigeria when he introduced himself to the complainant that he was a car dealer and even took him to his Car Mart office at Ojokoro, Lagos and collected the sum of N4.6m as part payment for him to sell a Lexus 350X SUV for him, a claim, the police said the convict knew to be false.
Police further alleged that after the convict collected the money from the complainant, he switched off his phones and escaped.
Police said that following the ugly development, the complainant petitioned the Commissioner of Police, CP in charge of the Police Special Fraud Unit, PSFU about the matter who gave a marching order to his crack team led by DSP Ayuba to locate and arrest the fleeing convict.
The Police, after days of intelligence gathering and tracking swooped on the convict at a hideout in Lagos.
Ishatayo was charged before an Igbosere Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining money under false pretence and stealing.
Police Counsel, Amedu Adoga had informed the Court in the charge marked A/101/2018 that the convict committed the offence in November, 2017 in Lagos.
Adoga told the Court that the convict tricked the complainant and collected the N4.6m from him with the promise to sell a Lexus SUV for the complainant knowing full well that there was no Lexus to sell.
Adoga said the offences the convict committed were punishable under sessions 314 and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The convict pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail.
During the trial spanning about five years, Magistrate Alogba sentenced and convicted him to six years.
