Court orders arrest of four property fraudsters

A Circuit Court presided over by her honour, Mrs Ellen Ofei Ayeh, has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of four persons charged with Conspiracy, Contrary to Section 23(1) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29), Forgery of Official Documents, Contrary to Section 158 of Act 1960 (Act 29) and Abetment of Crime, Contrary to Section 20(1) of Act 1960 (Act 29).

The charge sheet named the four accused persons as Acheampong Saviour, also known as George Mantean Koram, Bernard Heward Mills, also known as Bernard Koram, Isaac Nortey and Richard Ackah.

The bench warrant was issued after Police Prosecutor, Superintendent of Police, Alex Odonkor, told the court when the case was called that the accused persons have failed to show up in court to answer for the charges.

Judge Ellen Ofei Ayeh’s court adjourned sitting to the 11th of February 2020 to give the Police ample time to trace and arrest the accused persons.

Facts of the Case

According to the brief facts of the case, “Complainant Attah Sakyi Koram, is a retired Engineer and the eldest son of the late Edmund Manteaw Koram and resident at Dzorwulu, Accra.

The 1st accused person, Acheampong Savior, whose forged name is George Manteaw Koram, is an entrepreneur and resident of Pokuase, 2nd accused person Bernard Heward Mills alias Bernard Koram is a technician also resident at Pokuase, 3rd accused person Isaac Nortey is a trader and resident at Kotobabi while 4th accused person, Richard Ackah is a Resource Scientist and also resident of Kotobabi. All the accused persons are close friends.”

The facts further explain that the complainant’s late father willed a parcel of land known as H/No. 2 Amilcar Carbal Road, Airport Residential Area to the complainant and his brothers and sisters.

1st accused, some few years back, got to know of the aforementioned parcel of land belonging to the complainant located at Airport Residential Area and became interested in the said parcel of land and started devising ways to snatch the said parcel of land from the complainant.

The first accused started by changing his original name from Acheampong Saviour to a similar name as the complainant and then generated fake land documents of the said parcel of land and continued to generate a fake death certificate of the father of the complainant.

He then went further to procure a fake National Health Insurance card bearing the name George Manteaw Koram. He later met the three other accused persons and they agreed to act together to sue the complainant in the law court and have ownership of the said land so as to offer it for sale”.

“The 2nd accused person was to act as the brother of the 1st accused and the 3rd accused was the one to fund the court processes and other financial needs while the 4th accused would give technical support.

On 22nd November 2019 the accused went to the High Court, Accra and obtained a Letter of Administration to start their process. On 25th November 2019 the accused persons again went to the High Court and filed a Writ of Summons and later served the complainant claiming ownership over the aforementioned parcel of land.

The complainant on inspecting the documents attached to the Writ of Summons which had an Affidavit sworn on oath by the accused person detected among other things that, the land documents were fake, the death certificate of the complainant’s father which the 1st and 2nd accused claim to be that of their late father was also forged.

The purported date of the death of the complainant’s father was forged, as well as the passport. The complainant reported the case to the airport police and the accused persons were arrested.

A search was conducted in the respective rooms of the 1st and 2nd accused persons. In the room of the 1st accused person, a voter’s registration ID card number C050507 issued on 9th April 2012 and bearing the name Acheampong Saviour and bearing the picture of the 1st accused was retrieved.

In the room of the 2nd accused, a Unibank MasterCard ATM bearing the name Bernard Heward-Mills was retrieved, an ID of Legacy Ventures bearing the name Bernard Heward-Mills was retrieved, and an official receipt book of Legacy Ventures was also retrieved.Both 1st and 2nd accused persons admitted the above-mentioned identities as theirs respectively”.