'Magistrate gave me false documents'

Thursday, July 30, 2009 (Page 3)

THE Professor who was allegedly defrauded to the tune of GH¢18,000 by a female magistrate, Anna Jane Ghartey, told the Accra Circuit Court that the magistrate gave him fake documents covering two plots of land he had purchased at a total of GH¢20,000.
Professor Joseph Emmanuel Kwasi Adjaye said one of the indentures covering the plots of land sold to him indicated that the land belonged to the Kpeshie chiefs contrary to earlier claims from Anna that the land belonged to one Auntie Rose.
He also told the court that one of the indentures also contained the name of a deceased person.
Anna was alleged to have conspired with Samuel Aidoo, a building contractor, and Joana Nyarko, a fish monger, to deceive Professor Adjaye into believing that she (Anna) had parcels of land for sale at Adjiringanor, a suburb of Accra, succeeded in collecting a total of GH¢18,000 from him and prepared fake indentures covering two plots of land belonging to a deceased person.
Anna, who has since been discharged from the Bench, has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢30,000 with two sureties by the court, presided over by Mr Mahamadu Iddrisu.
The accused person is also standing trial in the same court for allegedly defrauding a Swiss national, Ms Darcie Slavin, of GH¢47,000 under the guise of providing her with plots of land. She has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢40,000 with two sureties to reappear on August 13, 2009 in that particular case.
Led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mary Agbozo to give his evidence-in-chief, Professor Adjaye, a lecturer of African Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States of America (USA), told the court that he met Anna in December 2006 through his brother, Dr Robert Adjaye, when he (Prof. Adjaye) needed parcels of land to purchase for development.
He said Anna, who was then with the Ghana Prisons Service, showed him parcels of land at Adjiringano and East Legon and later delegated Samuel to show him (Prof. Adjaye) more plots of land.
According to him, he made payments in three instalments to the tune of GH¢20,000 and an additional payment of GH¢5,000 which Anna said the Kpeshie chiefs would use to prepare consent letters, indentures and other documents covering the land.
He explained that Anna issued receipts for all payments he made to her.
He said he never received those consent letters and further told the court that a search he conducted at the Lands Commission proved that the lands Anna sold to him belonged to other people.
Prof. Adjaye told the court that upon realising that he had been duped, he decided to report Anna to the Property Fraud Unit of the Ghana Police Service to retrieve his money.
He said the head of the unit invited him and Anna for the matter to be resolved and at the said meeting it turned out that other persons who had been defrauded by Anna were present.
According to him, he was amazed to find that Samuel had used documents bearing his name to sell the same plot of land sold to him to another developer.
The complainant also told the court that Anna refunded GH¢4,000 as part-payment of moneys she had received from him after he had lodged a complaint with the police.
He is expected to be cross-examined by counsel for Anna on Thursday, July 30, 2009.
According to the facts of the case, in December 2006 Anna and Samuel collected GH¢11,000 from Prof. Adjaye and a further GH¢7,000 from him in August 2007.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons managed to hand over two parcels of land to Prof Adjaye and prepared documents covering the land and handed them over to the complainant.
However, Prof Adjaye was prevented from developing the land by some persons who also claimed ownership over it.
According to the prosecution, Anna replaced the plots in contention and gave Prof Adjaye new plots, which later turned out to have been registered in another person’s name.
In the course of police investigations, it came out that the person whose name was used on the indenture purported to be covering the plots of land sold to Prof Adjaye died on June 24, 2005 at the age of 98.