An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Friday sentenced a 32-year-old man, Israel Osaije, to two years imprisonment for engaging in fraud and benefiting the sum of $3,000.
Justice Ismail Ijelu however gave the convict an option of a N1 million fine, to be paid within one month, in lieu of imprisonment.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned the defendant on an amended one-count charge information bordering on fraudulent representation.
The prosecution counsel, Ebareotu Pereagbe, had told the court that the defendant entered a plea bargain with the prosecution leading it to amend the charges.
Pereagbe applied to the court to strike out the second count in the prosecution’s earlier charge.
The trial judge granted the request of the prosecution.
When the amended charge was read, the defendant pleaded guilty to “possessing fraudulent documents in which he falsely represented himself as a foreign woman.”
The prosecution told the court that following the intelligence received, the defendant was arrested sometime in August 2023 at Peninsula Garden Estate, Lekki, Lagos.
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He told the court that an iPhone 7 was recovered from Osaije and that the commission found fraudulent documents inside the phone during forensic analysis.
He said: “The defendant’s phone was subjected to forensic analysis and incriminating documents were found. The documents were printed in front of the defendant.”
The prosecution counsel told the court that the defendant wrote a statement confessing to benefitting USD 3,000 as proceeds of the fraudulent activity.
Pereagbe also told the court that Osaije restituted N1 million in two tranches of N500,000, which he paid to the EFCC through Zenith Bank in January 2024 and Access Bank in February 2024.
The prosecution counsel presented the court with the Access and Zenith bank managers’ cheques and sought to tender them in evidence along with the defendant’s statement and iPhone 7 mobile device.
The judge admitted the materials as exhibits in evidence.
Pereagbe asked the court to convict the defendant in view of his guilty plea.
He also asked the court to order the defendant to forfeit both his iPhone 7 and the N1 million restituted and in the custody of the EFCC to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Justice Ijelu asked the defendant whether he fully understood the charge against him and knew the consequences.
The judge asked the defendant: “Do you know that you can choose to have a trial instead of taking a guilty plea? And allow the prosecution to prove its case against you?”