A Mason , Kwasi Yeboah, has appeared before the Awutu Bereku district court for defrauding a fellow mason and a lotto writer to the tune of GHC1,004 under the pretext of helping them to win lotto.

Yeboah’s victims, Owusu Boahen, a lotto writer  and Emmanuel Donkor, a mason, paid  GHC 514 and GHC490, respectively to Yeboah, only to realise to their chagrin that they had been duped.

Yeboah pleaded guilty to the charges of defrauding by false pretences, explaining in one vein that he obtained the said lotto from someone at the Kotoka International Airport.

In another , he told the court that he did not take the card from anybody at the airport, adding, he used the money to solve personal problems.

The Presiding judge, Mr. Kofi Ahiabor convicted Yeboah on his own plea of guilty, deferred the sentence and remanded him into prison custody.

The facts as presented by chief Inspector Helena Aidoo, indicated that ,on March 7, 2009, a witness in the case, who is a lotto writer , was in his kiosk at High Tension, a suburb of Kasoa, when Yeboah, a resident of  Nyanyano-Kakraba, approached(witness) with information that his brother called Thomas Ofosu had sent him a lotto card from the USA which would be played in the National Lottories.

Yeboah was said to have added that he had, however, squandered 500 dollars which his brother attached to the card to be used in buying chemicals in washing the cards to enable the lotto numbers to appear on the card.

Yeboah, therefore, gave the card to the witness for keeps till he (Yeboah) could get the money to buy the chemical.

He returned a month later with a chemical and washed the card but the number that appeared on the card had already been played.

He then told the witness that their inability to get the chemical on time to wash the card was the cause of the lost of chance to win.

He left and returned later to show a letter purportedly written to him by his US-based brother stating that the brother was going to send another card down , so he(the witness) should find money to buy the chemical.

The prosecutor said the witness had no money so he introduced Yeboah to the two complainants who upon the strength of that letter paid those sum to Yeboah to buy the said chemicals.

But after getting the chemical and washing the card, the numbers that appeared on it indicated that they would be played in September 2009.

Ms Aidoo stated further that the aggrieved complainant challenged Yeboah who apologised and promised to refund their money to them, saying that it was "a deal".

He, however, failed to refund the money, only to be spotted later in town in another attempt to defraud somebody else using the same card. Yeboah, however, bolted at the sight of the witness.

On October 11, 2009, however, the complainant grabbed Yeboah from his hideout and handed him over to the Kasoa police.

He told the police that he was in league with one Osei in Accra but failed to lead the police to the said Osei in Accra, thereby necessitating his prosecution.

Graphic/AMA