Richard Fiadomor, the Maritime University lecturer who was arrested and arraigned before court in 2021 for defrauding an unsuspecting victim of Ghc66, 000, has been jailed for 12 weeks.
The Tema Circuit Court ‘B’ handed down the sentence after Fiadomor, a former Presiding Member of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly and a former Constituency Secretary of the National Democratic Congress in Tema West, was found guilty of issuing a dud cheque.
In addition to the 12 weeks of jail time, he was also sentenced to a fine of 400 penalty units and is therefore to pay his victim, Stephen Attipoe, Ghc4,800.
It would be recalled that in September 2021 when the convict was arraigned before court and the issue was reported by the media, he started a campaign of denials, claiming the media had concocted the story.
Mr. Fiadomor had even called WhatsUp News, Ghana’s first ever digital newspaper and accused it of reporting wrong facts after the paper had put out the story.
Less than a year later, he has been jailed over the same crime he claimed the media had fabricated about him.
The facts of the case as presented by ASP J.A. Asamani before the Tema Circuit Court B is that in September 2020, Richard Fiadomor had approached Stephen Attipoe and borrowed Ghc66,000 to clear some four cars at Tema port which he had imported into the country.
He had promised to pay it back in a week. However, when the time came to pay, he started using elusive tactics.
Eventually, he issued a dud cheque for the complainant to cash at the Fidelity Bank. However, after several failed attempts to cash the cheque, the complainant reported the fraud to the Tema Community Police who picked up the suspect and later arraigned him before court.
The former NDC Parliamentary aspirant for Keta had been charged with issuing a dud cheque contrary to sections 131 (A) (4) and (C) of the criminal and other offenses Act 1960 (Act 29)
He had pleaded not guilty but the court found him guilty and sentenced for 12 weeks and fined him Ghc4,800.
Additionally, the court also advised the plaintiff to take civil action against him.
Meanwhile, many are commending Mr. Stephen Attipoe for seeing through the prosecution of the man who is said to be facing another fraud charge before the Tema Circuit Court A.
It is believed that Mr. Fiadomor’s tactics were aimed to frustrate Mr. Attipoe into giving up on the money.
At a point, he is said to have promised to use his providence fund worth GH¢37,000 to repay part of the money he had borrowed from Mr. Attipoe but later took the money without repaying his debt.
Also, his decision to plead not guilty to the charge slapped on him was seen as a headstrong move to risk it all and go to jail and then return and enjoy the money after the criminal prosecution.
However, the court has advised the Plaintiff to explore civil action against him as well.