How ‘brave’ businessman ‘allegedly defrauded two army officers’

A businessman, who allegedly defrauded two lieutenants of the Ghana Armed Forces, has been granted bail by the Accra Circuit Court.

The 51-year-old, Patrick Adotevi, was granted GH₵80,000.00 bail with two sureties.

He pleaded not guilty to defrauding two army officers of their GH₵45,000.00 at the court presided over by Ellen Asamoah.

The case is set to continue on August 31, 2020.

The facts of the case presented by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fuseini Yakubu, are that the complainants, in this case, are both Lieutenants from the Ghana Armed Forces Defense MT Battalion as well as the Military Police, respectively.

The accused, Patrick Adotevi aged 51, in 2019, portrayed himself as a car dealer to the complainants. He, then, promised to get them genuine cars that have custom documents with the duties duly paid.

The prosecutor said he then lured the victims to believe he was a genuine businessman and so, the two officers advanced payments of various sums of monies amounting to GH₵30,000.00 and GH₵15,000.00 respectively.

After taking the money, the prosecutor said that the accused travelled to Togo with the pretext of supplying to them one ‘Toyota highlander and Toyota  Yaris vehicles’.

But that was not to be as three months after the payments were made, the accused had not surfaced.

The complainants, according to the ASP, became suspicious and began to track him.

The accused was eventually located at Anyako in the Volta Region, where a report was made and he was arrested and later transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters for investigations.

ASP Yakubu told the court that during investigations, the accused confirmed having taken monies from the complainants to supply them with vehicles but was unable to produce the cars.

He was admitted to bail and asked to report as investigations continued.

But he jumped bail, and his surety along the way also left town without informing the police.

On July 20, this year, the police proceeded on intelligence received from a close source which led to the arrest of the accused once again.

He was then charged and arraigned before the court.