By: Audrey Raymonda John
The presiding Magistrate of Ross Road Court No. 1 has ordered the correctional officers to Remand Mohamed Sankoh who was arraigned before him for Fraud.
Mohamed Sankoh was in court for a preliminary hearing for Fraudulent conversation contrary to section 20(1) (Iv) (a) of the Larceny Act of 1916.
It was alleged that sometime in June 2022 at Genner Wright Road Up gun, the accused fraudulently converted to his own use and benefits certain property to wit one Tecno Spark mobile phone and a black plastic bag containing the sum of one million five hundred thousand Leones entrusted to him by complainant Yusuf Mansaray for safekeeping.
Led in his examination in chief by Sergeant Memuna Manica Turay, complainant Yusuf Mansaray recognized the accused as his apprentice.
He said he came to know the accused sometime in June 2023 at Genner Wright Road to do an electrical installation. The complainant said he was on the roof working on an air conditioner when the accused took his phone valued at two million Leones and bag containing the sum of one million five hundred thousand Leones and fled.
The complainant said it was the person he was working for who informed him that the accused had gone outside with his bag and belongings.
The complainant said he went on in search of him but to no avail. He said even his mobile phone which the accused fled with was totally off.
Explaining further, the complainant said he went to trace the accused in Belgium (somewhere in Freetown) and on arrival, the accused father told him he was there with the phone but has gone. He said the father of the accused advised him to go and made his report to the police which he did.
He told the court that a few days after, he went out at night to buy credit when he heard people shouting “badman”. He said he proceeded to know who this badman was and to his surprise saw the accused whom he arrested and took to him to Ross Road police station where he made a statement.
The accused who was unrepresented begged the complainant to have mercy on him for his wrongdoings.
Magistrate Sahr Kekura refused him bail and ordered him to be remanded at the male correctional facility until the 17th of May 2023.