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March 24, 2023
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
This is an appeal against the Judgment of the Circuit Court, Kpando dated 28 February,
The Appellant was arraigned before the Circuit Court on one count of Defrauding by
False Pretence contrary to section 131(1) of the Criminal and other Offences Act 1960 (Act
He was tried and convicted and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment with hard labour.
It is against this conviction and sentence that the Appellant has appealed to this Court.
The grounds of appeal found in the Notice of Appeal dated 4 March 2022 and filed on 9
March 2022 are as follows:-
That the conviction and sentence of the Appellant on the charges was against weight
of evidence adduced at the trial and on record
This is a criminal appeal and the omnibus ground of appeal set out in ground 1 of
Appellant’s notice of appeal is wrong. It should be that “the verdict cannot be supported
having regard to the evidence.”
The facts as presented by the prosecution are that complainant is a fisherman staying at
Kpando Torkor and the appellant is the head Pastor of victory Chapel International also
staying at Kpando Torkor. The complainant is also a church member of the appellant’s
church. In the year 2015, the complainant visited the synagogue church of all nations in
Nigeria for spiritual deliverance and prayers. Whiles the complainant was at the church
service in Nigeria, the appellant called him to leave whatever he was doing and return to
Ghana. That there was a lot of work for him to do for God before prophet T.B.Joshua
would attend to him. The complainant immediately returned to Ghana and announced
his arrival to the appellant. The appellant called the people he claimed were the wisemen
from Synagogue church of all nations, Nigeria and gave the phone to the complainant.
The supposed wisemen only told complainant to blame the appellant herein for his
predicament for not informing them before allowing the complainant to visit them. The
complainant left for his house and in about five minutes time the appellant again called
the complainant and asked him to bring an amount of money to be sent to the so called
wisemen to help deliver one Benjamin before they would attend to him. The complainant
gave an amount of Gh¢10,000.00 to appellant. The appellant then started demanding
more money from the complainant on daily basis to the tune of about Gh¢120,00.00. The
appellant also deceived the complainant to look for an amount of Gh¢ 50,00.00 for them
to renovate his church building and
AI Generated Summary
The High Court (per Ayitey Armah-Tetteh J.) heard an appeal from the Circuit Court, Kpando, where the Appellant—a head pastor of Victory Chapel International at Kpando Torkor—had been convicted of defrauding by false pretences and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The complainant, a fisherman and church member, had traveled to the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria for deliverance. While he was there, the Appellant asked him to return to Ghana and, back home, put him on phone with purported SCOAN ‘wisemen’ who requested funds to “deliver” a sick person, Benjamin, before attending to the complainant. The complainant subsequently sent large sums via mobile money through the Appellant. On review, the High Court found no misstatement or personation by the Appellant; all requests originated from unidentified callers whom neither party had met, and the prosecution did not investigate phone numbers. Applying the burden of proof principles and the statutory elements of Act 29, the court allowed the appeal and set aside the conviction.