An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Wednesday sentenced an unemployed man, Olanrewaju Abbas, to one year imprisonment for the possession of false documents to defraud people on a dating website.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Rahmon Oshodi sentenced Abbas to one year jail term in Ikoyi Correctional Centre, following his guilty plea to the one-count charge of possession of false document.
Oshodi, however, gave the convict an option of N100,000 and ordered that all items recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Umar Kyari, in his review of facts, had submitted that the convict was among a number of suspected cybercriminals arrested in Baruwa, Iyana-Ipaja in Lagos.
According to the prosecution: “He was arrested on Oct. 19 2021 alongside others and under interrogation, he admitted to engaging in dating scam and identity theft.
“He confessed that he usually disguises as a female with many of his targets being in Australia.
“An iPhone 8 was recovered from him which was the proceed of the crime, which he benefited more than N400,000 and 100 dollars.”
The prosecution, thereafter, tendered in evidence his extrajudicial statement, the fraudulent documents printed out from his device, the manager’s cheque of N400,000 issued as restitution and the iPhone.
The items were admitted into evidence, following no objections from the defence counsel, Mr Kayode Okimoba.
The prosecutor prayed the court to convict him as charged and that the manager’s cheque and phone recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The defence counsel, in his allocutus, had pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy and to give the defendant a second chance.
“He is also a first-time offender who has regretted his action and promised never to go back to it,” Okimoba said.
The defendant who was also given opportunity to address the court pleaded for mercy. (NAN)