By: Audrey Raymonda John
The accused Sheik Mohamed Conteh and Yirrah Marrah arraigned in Court for two counts offences of conspiracy to defraud and obtaining money by false pretenses contrary to law.
According to the particulars of offenses, unknown date from July to August 2022 at Guard Street in Freetown, both accused conspired together with other persons unknown to defraud and obtained the sum of LeN14,500 from Mamusu Conteh by falsely pretending that they will facilitate the travel of her younger brother Sheku Conteh to oversea, knowing same to be false.
In her testimony, first Prosecution Witness, Mamusu Conteh recognized both accused and recalled the aforesaid date when the first accused called his brother and did transaction for facilitating the travel to Canada.
She said, she initially gave to the first accused Sheik Mohamed Conteh the sum of LeN8,000 in presence of his brother and later made the balance sum, amounting to the total sum of NLe14,500.
According to the witness, she gave to the second accused Marrah the sum of NLe1,500 via orange money for the purpose of the same traveling. She said after completed the payment, both accused requested for another extra sum of LeN15,000, adding that when she suspected them of being fraudsters she immediately requested for the money but they refused.
The witness said she therefore went and report the matter to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters.
Under cross examination by Defense Counsel Musa Pious Sesay, the Witness confirmed that she was present when the transaction began.
She said she was not aware of her brother attending conferences and filling of forms at the office of Qnet, noting that her brother did not produce any documents to her to ascertain about the operation of Qnet Organization.
At this stage, the learned Lawyer sought from the Bench for an adjournment to further cross examined the witness.
He however requested bail for his Clients citing section 79 of the Criminal Procedure Act No.32 of 1965.
Magistrate Ngegba granted both accused bail in the sum LeN50,000 ( fifty thousand new Leones) each.
The bail condition required both accused to produced 2 sureties that should show prove of residents in Freetown and they should be employed in a recognized Institutions.
The condition also added that each Sureties should also produce a utility utility bill receipt and the bail bond should be approved by the Deputy Assistant Registrar (DAR).
The matter comes up again on Tuesday 20th December, 2022.