Land valuer in court for fraud

Monday, August 3, 2009 (Page 3)

AN employee of the Lands Valuation Services in Accra, John Alormey, is standing trial at the Accra Circuit Court charged with fraudulent sale of land.
Alormey, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of fraudulent sale of land, has been admitted to bail.
He was alleged to have sold four plots of land in July 2005 to the complainant at a cost of GH¢9,500, although he did not have title to the land, which is situated at Ashale-Botwe, a suburb of Accra.
The Circuit Court hearing the case has adjourned the matter to August 27, 2009 to enable the complainant and the accused person settle the matter out of court.
Alormey had opened his defence but in the middle of his defence, his counsel announced to the court that his client wanted the matter settled out of court to which the court obliged.
The facts of the case were that in 2005, the accused person negotiated and sold four plots of land to the complainant.
In furtherance of the sale, the accused person prepared documents covering the land and handed them over to the complainant.
However, the complainant conducted a search at the Lands Commission and found that the documents prepared by Alormey were fake.
It was also detected that all signatories to the documents were deceased.
The complainant, therefore, lodged a complaint with the police, resulting in the arrest of Alormey.
Alormey was said to have informed the police that the land belonged to one Emmanuel Borketey Bortey but could not assist the police to effect the arrest of the said Bortey.
The accused person is said to have so far refunded GH¢2,300.