The Tarkwa Circuit Court, has sentenced Kelvin Ayanka, a 20 year-old Nigerian, to 18 years imprisonment in hard labour for defrauding by false pretences.

Kelvin pleaded not guilty, but the court found him guilty at the end of proceedings.

Police Chief Inspector Oscar Amponsah had earlier told the court presided by Mr. Justice Obeng Asante that the complainant is a student who lived at Cyanide, a suburb of Tarkwa, with his parents and Kelvin, a trader, resided at Kasoa near Accra.

Chief inspector Amponsah said on April 29, the complainant received a text message on her mobile phone indicating that she has won 10,000 Ghana cedis from MTN mobile money promotion.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said the text message asked her to send MTN recharge cards worth 1,000 Ghana cedis to two MTN mobile phone numbers before a code will be given to her for the withdrawal of the promotion money.

He said the complainant called the mobile phone number that was used to send the text message and she realized that it was the convict who claimed to be one Mr. Kofi Owusu, the manager of MTN promotion in Accra.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said the complainant then sent the MTN recharged cards to the two MTN numbers which were mobile numbers of Kelvin.

He said after Kelvin had received the recharged cards, he demanded to have sex with the complainant before releasing the code to her.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said when the complainant realized that she has been defrauded, she made a report to the Tarkwa Police.

He said at about 0730 hours on October 3, the complainant called Kelvin on phone and explained to him that because of her busy schedule, it would not be possible for her to travel to Accra, and pleaded with him to rather visit her in Tarkwa.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said when Kelvin arrived at the Tarkwa main lorry station, he called the complainant on phone and described the attire he was wearing to her for easy identification.

He said the Police and the complainant’s father who were around the lorry station monitoring the convict, arrested him, and took him to the police station.

Chief Inspector Amponsah said at the police station, the convict gave his name as Kelvin Ayanka, and denied been Kofi Owusu, the manager of MTN Promotion.