Court issues bench warrant for road contractor’s arrest

An Accra Circuit Court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a road contractor who defrauded the Managing Director of Cadmus Mining Limited of GH¢297,500 under the pretext of securing him a gold mining concession at Anyinabirim near Sefwi-Wiawso.

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An Accra Circuit Court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a road contractor who defrauded the Managing Director of Cadmus Mining Limited of GH¢297,500 under the pretext of securing him a gold mining concession at Anyinabirim near Sefwi-Wiawso.

The accused, Prince John Baidoo, who is facing charges of defrauding by false pretences, failed to show up in court after he had been granted a police enquiry bail.

On October 2020, when the case was first called at the court, presided over by Ms Evelyn Asamoah, counsel for the accused said his client was unwell and produced evidence of his illness.

Both the accused person and his lawyer, have since not showed up in court.

The court, therefore, issued a bench warrant for his arrest and subsequently adjourned the case to May 13 this year.

Facts

The facts, as presented by the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fuseini Yakubu, were that in May 2019, the MD who is the complainant, was in need of a gold mining concession and was introduced to the accused by one Asiamah.

He said Asiamah led Baidoo to the complainant’s office at Airport Residential Area to meet him.

In the meeting, the prosecutor said, Baidoo introduced himself as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Divine Timing Limited and also presented maps for gold mining concession in the name of Divine Timing Limited.

Subsequently the complainant and Baidoo signed an agreement for Baidoo to release ten 10 kilometers square of the concession to the complainant.

Demand

ASP Yakubu said Baidoo demanded for (US $200,000) for the 10 Kilometers square and asked complainant to make a down payment of ($50,000).

Baidoo, after receiving the US $50,000 and GH¢10,000 arranged with complainant’s geologist to visit the concession.

On May 13, 2019, the prosecutor said the complainant’s geologist visited the mining concession at Anyinabirim where he met one Mr Mintah, the caretaker of the concession.

The said Mr Mintah, according to the prosecution, told the geologist that he was the caretaker of the concession and refused to allow the geologist to work on the land.

Owner

Again the prosecutor said, Mr Mintah told the geologist that one Mr Nkansah was the owner of the concession and he was not aware of any one coming to work on the land.

The complainant on receipt of the report from the geologist managed to contact the said Mr Nkansah.

ASP Yakubu said Mr Nkansah told the complainant that, he owned Divine Timing Limited together with the concession and that he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the accused was not the CEO as he had alleged.

Mr Nkansah then said he did not authorise Baidoo to perform any transaction on the concession on his behalf.

The prosecutor said realising that he had been defrauded, the complainant petitioned the Police for investigations.

Investigation

During investigations, the prosecutor said the accused person was arrested and ,in his caution statement, admitted having collected $50,000 and GH¢10,000 from the complainant.

The prosecutor said Mr Nkansah, who was also invited by police to assist in investigations, told police that sometime in May 2019, the accused and one Peter Chang informed him that the accused person’s son and his wife in Germany, whose father was a millionaire, wanted to invest in gold mining in Ghana and they needed his concession.

The prosecutor added that “they negotiated for the concession where the accused paid him $20,000 for entrance fee which was non-refundable and throughout Mr Nkansah’s dealing with the accused person, he (accused) never mentioned anything about the complainant to him.

“And he is also not aware of any agreement between complainant and the accused person in which his company was used by the accused to collect money from the complainant. “

Source: graphiconline