CARLOS COKER & OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC

AYEBI J.A.

This appeal emanated from the conviction and sentence of the appellants herein and one Awudu Musa @ Mustapha on 20th July 2009 by a Kumasi High Court on the charges of:

(i) Conspiracy to defraud by false pretences contrary to sections 23(1) and 131 of Act 29 of 1960 as amended by NLCD 398, and

(ii) Defrauding by false pretences contrary to section 131 of Act 29 of 1960 as amended by NLCD 398.

The basis of the trial and the conviction of the appellant and Musa Awudu are as follows:

The appellants and Mustapha directly and indirectly represented to the complainant Alhaji Dauda Abu, that they were employees of World Wide Organisation, a subsidiary or an agency of the United Nations Organisation with its headquarters in South Africa. The appellants further represented to the complainant that their Organisation was desirous of putting up schools and hospitals in needy communities in Kumasi at a cost of US$3million and that they had identified him as a pious and an honest man who could control and manage the projects.

Thus on the instructions of the appellants and Mustapha, complainant acquired a piece of land and a house as an abode for appellants to kick start the project. The complainant was to pre-finance the cost involved and be re-imbursed when the US$3million was released. The complainant was later instructed to come for the money in Togo. When complainant told them he could not carry such a huge sum of money, the venue of delivery was changed to Accra at an extra cost. In Accra, complainant was handed a box wrapped in brown papers. But then complainant received instructions not to open the box until he had sought the assistance of certain people who turned out to be members of a syndicate known to each other.

The content of the box turned out to be pieces of paper cut to dollar note sizes. Except for Mustapha, all the appellants herein at one time or the other visited the complainant in Kumasi all in the bid to assist him access the money in the box. There was however no money in the box. Rather the box contained pieces of paper which appellants washed into some dollar notes with chemicals they made the complainant procure.

By the time the complainant realized that there was no subsidiary or agency of the United Nations Organisation called World Wide Organisation with its headquarters in South Africa and that all the representations of the appellants were false, the complainant had incurred an expenditure of US$103,000.00. The heads of