Founder of the Heaven Way Champion International Ministry at Weija, Patricia Asiedua, also known as Agradaa has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in hard labour by the Accra Circuit Court.

This was after the court presided over by Evelyn Asamoah found her guilty on multiple counts of defrauding by false pretence and charlatanic advertisements in newspapers.

The self-styled evangelist used her church to defraud members of the public under the guise of “money doubling.”

Before passing sentence, the judge ordered that pregnancy test be conducted on her.

Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police(ASP) Emmanuel Haligah told the court that on October 10, 2022, the complainants reported to the police that Mrs Asiedua demanded and received money from them under the pretext of giving them various sums of monies in return.

He said upon the receipt of the report, police commenced investigations into the matter which led to the arrest of the convict.

ASP Haligah told the court that investigations established that on October 5, 2022, Asiedua advertised on Today’s Tv and other social media platforms that she was organizing an all-night service on October 7, 2022 at Heaven Way Champions International Ministry where she was going to share an amount of GH300.000.00 to all participants who needed money to fund their business or pay rent.

The court heard that the self-styled evangelist displayed the bundles of money during the advert and encouraged members of the public to attend the service for a share of the money.

The prosecutor stated that investigations also established that due to the said false representation made in the adverts on media platforms, complainants and other members of the public came from all walks of life to attend the said all night service.

ASP Haligah said that during the all-night service, Asiedua directed the congregation to form groups of 20 members and each member was to pay an amount of money ranging from GH 1000.00 and any amount.

“She made the representation that if the first group of 20 could each pay GH 1000.00 each, she would give them GH50,000.00 to share,” ASP Haligah added.

He said the convict continued in that fashion and promised the next group to pay GH900.00 each and get a sum of GH40,000.

The prosecutor told the court that some of the complainants found themselves in the group of 19 paid GH500.00 and more.

ASP Haligah said Asiedua represented to them that she would give that group GH25,000.00 to share.

“Based upon this representation, the complainants parted with various sums of money, Accused after obtaining the monies did not fulfil her promise to give them the sums of money in return and rather left them in the church premises stranded,” the policeman said.

The prosecutor said further investigations established that the self-styled evangelist undertook the charlatanic advertisement with intent to defraud unsuspecting complainants.

He said during interrogations, the convict admitted complainants’ assertions were true.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA

A High court in Accra (General Jurisdiction 7) has awarded a cost of GH750,000 against ABSA Bank Ghana Limited for defaming Mr Adri Hopson, a real estate developer.

In 2019, Mr Hopson, the plaintiff sold two separate two-bedroom houses to two employees of the Bank, Isaac Quao and Linda Mokeh.

The plaintiff had stated in his writ of summons filed by his lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo that he was subsequently invited by the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to respond to a complaint of fraud lodged against him by the Bank, the defendant, regarding his sale of encumbered properties to its two employees.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff had argued that the properties were not encumbered in any way, therefore, the act of the defendant in lodging a complaint against him was defamatory.

Mr Hopson contends that he was not involved in any contract or transaction with the defendant Bank.

In his judgement on May 22, the presiding judge, Justice Ali Baba Abature held that the complaint of defrauding by false pretences lodged against the plaintiff by the defendant Bank was defamatory as it was made out of malice without probable and reasonable cause, thereby harming the reputation of the plaintiff as a successful and respected. businessman.

Justice Abature stated that the two workers of the Bank were in occupation of the properties the plaintiff genuinely sold to them, with one of them admitting that she has registered her title to the property she purchased.

Consequently, the judge awarded GH300,000 in general damages to be paid to the plaintiff by the defendant, punitive damages of GH300,000, compensatory damages of GH150,000. and costs, including services cost of GH100,000 against defendant in favour of the plaintiff.

The defendant had told the court that the plaintiff mortgaged the properties he sold to its employees, but Nii Addo, counsel for the plaintiff averred that the
properties the defendant claimed were mortgaged by his client were not the properties sold to the two employees of the defendant.

It was the case of the plaintiff that he dealt with the defendant’s two employees in good faith and did not suppress any material fact from the employees and that malice occurred on the part of the defendant when the complaint of fraud was made to the police with intent to harm his image or reputation.

The defendant, on the other hand, denied all the averments of the plaintiff.

In its statement of defence, ABSA averred that the results of an initial search conducted by its Central Securities Unit (CSU) on the properties sold to its two employees by the plaintiff indicated that there were no encumbrances on the property before it accepted the mentioned employees’ application for a mortgage under its Bank Staff Mortgage Loan Policy.

However, the defendant stated that subsequent investigations at the time the said employees’ mortgage documents were submitted to the Land Title Division for registration of its interest in the properties by virtue of the mortgage loan it granted to the two employees for the purchase of the properties have revealed that the properties the plaintiff sold to its two employees were encumbered as a mortgage had already been registered on the said properties.

Consequently, the defendant’s mortgage interest charge in the two properties could not be registered thereby rendering the mortgage facility it granted to its two mentioned employees unsecure.

As a result, ABSA said its Fraud Risk Management and Investigations Unit was commissioned to conduct forensic investigations into the conduct of the plaintiff, and the investigation report revealed that that the Plaintiff had mortgaged certain properties including the two that Plaintiff sold to its employees to First Trust Savings and Loans for a loan facility.

Defendant therefore lodged a complaint with the Regional Crime Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to investigate the matter.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA