Businessman convicted of defrauding six people on Canadian visas

Frank Ablorh, a businessman, was fined GH ¢ 24,000 for raising $ 2,000 each from six people under the pretext of obtaining Canadian visas for them.

Ablorh by default would go to jail for eight months for forced labor.

Ablorh had pleaded not guilty in an Accra circuit court to six counts of fraud by false pretenses.

The court, chaired by Ms Evelyn Asamoah, at the end of the trial, however, found Ablorh guilty on all six counts and sentenced him accordingly.

At the prosecution, Chief Inspector Seth Frimpong, said the plaintiffs were Vida Ampah, a trader, David Kofi Agbo, an artist, Emmanuel Awah, a trader, Gifty Agbodjan, a caterer, Abraham Agbodjan a trader and Jeffery Agbo, a business administrator.

He said Ablorh and the plaintiffs were church members and that in February 2017 Ablorh told Church he could help potential applicants get Canadian visas.

The prosecution said Ablorh informed the plaintiffs that his partners were hosting a conference in Toronto, Canada, in June 2017 and each demanded $ 5,000 each of the candidates so that he could add them to a delegation from Ghana.

The prosecution said the plaintiffs had expressed interest and parted with $ 2,000 each in partial payment in anticipation that Ablorh would get their visas.

Mr Frimpong said the conference date had passed and Ablorh could not get their visas, so the plaintiffs demanded their money, but Ablorh refused to reimburse the various amounts and went into hiding.

Chief Inspector Frimpong said a report was made to police and during investigations Ablorh was arrested and $ 1,600 recovered.

The prosecution said police investigations revealed that there had been no such conference in Canada, as Ablorh alleged, and that he had made a false statement to defraud the plaintiffs.

— GNA