Three persons at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison have been handed extended jail term for defrauding five people to the tune of GHS 189,000 under the pretense of securing visa for them.
The leader, Courage Bani who was already serving nine years in jail for causing harm, recruited Samuel Ofori and Bright Dzebu in the cell, and made his victims pay various amounts through mobile money transfers after which he blocked them.
He later tried bribing the police to kill the case on two occasions during the investigations, and in effect would serve two more for years for that.
Already he had been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in high labor on each count, after a Ho High Court last week found him guilty on 10 counts of defrauding by false pretense. The sentence will run concurrently.
His partners were also found guilty on 10 counts of defrauding by false pretense for posing as a receptionist and secretary of the fake agency Bani created.
They were each jailed 10 years in hard labor on each count. The sentences will run concurrently.
The prosecutor told the court that Bani introduced himself as a lawyer and managing director of the travel agency after his victims picked the contact which he had displayed in an advertisement on a private television station.
The three were apprehended in their prison cells when the police traced some of the payments to the brother of the second accused.
