A 31-year-old painter, Richard Opoku, has been sentenced to 6 years imprisonment in hard labour for defrauding by false pretence.

He was convicted on his own plea. Prosecuting, Police Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Obeng Diawuo that, during the month of April last year, the complainant, Lordina White Arthur informed the convict that her uncle in Kumasi wanted to put up a building in Tarkwa.

The offender on hearing this told the complainant that his father is the sub-chief of Efuanta, a community near Tarkwa, and that he will help her to get 20 plots of land for the project at a very affordable price.

According to the Prosecutor, the complainant then arranged with her uncle to meet Opoku on one of his visits to Tarkwa and he bargained the price of the 20 plots of land to the tune of GHC16, 000.00

He said the complainant’s uncle than made a part payment of GHC 8,800 as value of 11 plots.

Inspector Amponsah said, after the amount had been given to the convict he handed over a fake site plan to the complainant and the uncle.

He said when the two detected that the site plan was fake they lost interest in purchasing the land and demanded their money back.

The Prosecutor said the offender started playing tricks with the complainant and disappeared from his matrimonial home and went into hiding at Dompim in the Tarkwa Nsueam constituency.

Inspector Amponsah said the complainant reported the incident to the police and this led to the arrest of the convict.