Lawyer jailed for fraud

An Accra circuit court has sentenced a 60 year old private legal practitioner, Owusu Sekyere, to seven years imprisonment for defrauding a businessman of two hundred thousand dollars. 

An accomplice of the lawyer, Albert Coleman was also jailed five years. They are to serve their jail term in hard labour. 

The two, according to prosecution in the year 2014 through false pretense made one Ato Hamilton, a businessman, and resident of East Legon believe, that if the money is paid to them, they can secure a land at Cantonments, a suburb of Accra, for him. 

The lawyer prepared fake documents on behalf of one Dr. Jennifer Brown Aryee, a client of his, to receive the money from the plaintiff, Ato Hamilton. 

The lawyer after receiving the said money demanded another three hundred thousand dollars. The plaintiff considering the pressure mounted on him by the lawyer became suspicious, and investigated the issue, only to realise, that the said Dr. Jennifer Brown Aryee was not even aware her property was being sold. 

Meanwhile, the PRO of the Ghana Bar Association, GBA, Yaa Gyakobo has described the sentencing of one of its own as unfortunate.  

Lawyer Yaa Gyakobo told Ibrahim Kwarteng on ‘Behind the News,’ that the Bar Association is not responsible for the discipline of its members, nonetheless, the GBA is concerned about such developments which affect the ethics of the profession.

GBCONLINE
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