A Father-of-three, identified as Okechukwu Brown, was on Monday
sentenced to three years imprisonment for defrauding an American man, Mr
Thomas Nublin, out of 3,650 dollars in an online romance scam.
According to reports, He committed the offence between August and November 2013 at Ikeja but in July 2014, the EFCC
received a petition from the U.S. Army alleging that some persons
traced to Nigeria defrauded some of their members out of over 13,000
dollars in a romance scam.
The EFFC investigated and was able to trace some of the funds
amounting to 3,650 dollars to EcoBank Plc via Moneygram which was
received by the culprit, who later pleaded guilty to the charge brought
against him in court and was sentenced after entering into a plea
bargain with the anti graft agency.
The counsel to the defendant, Uche Chikelue, asked the court for
mercy in sentencing Brown, saying that not only has he been well
behaved, but also co-operated with the prosecution throughout the
investigations, has no past criminal record and he has refunded all the
money taken.
He said:
“He has aged parents,
who due to his present incarceration, are having serious health
challenges. “He is the first born of the family and the breadwinner, he
also has a wife and three children, the last, a toddler,”
Justice Josephine Oyefeso of an Ikeja High Court handed down the
verdict after acknowledged that the crime was a dishonour to Nigeria and
paints it in a bad light.
Hence there must be justice for the defendant, complainant and the country.
He said:
“I have also taken
into consideration that the Criminal Law of Lagos prescribes 15 years in
prison for the offence of obtaining money by false pretences. I hereby
sentence the defendant to three years in prison on the one-count charge
of obtaining money by false pretences. This sentence begins from March
13, the day he was first arraigned.”
