A Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos on Thursday ordered an internet fraudster, Bamgboye Adewunmi, to pay the sum of N200,000, and forfeit a Guaranty Trust Bank cheque with monetary value of N5 million to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo, made the orders, after the internet the convict, popularly called Yahoo boy, pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy and an attempt to defraud an American helicopter Company of the sum of $897,432.96 USD, made against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The prosecutor, Abubakar Salihu Wara, while arraigning Adewumi, told the court that the convict alongside Stephen Godbless and Ibrahim Owolabi, both said to be at large, conspired among themselves to commit the offences.
The prosecutor told the court that the three men, with an intension to defraud and fraudlently obtained the sum of $897,432.96 USD, misdirected the electronic messages from U.S helicopter Company an email bontoh1@national.citadel.edu.
The prosecutor told the court that offences committed by the convict, contravened section 11 of the of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, and punishable under the same Act.
The convict pleaded guilty to the charges.
Following his plea of guilty, the prosecutor, Mr. Wara, after reviewing the facts of the charge, urged the court to convict and sentence him.
However, lawyer to the convict, Adenike Goncalves, in her allucutor, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her client.
She told the court to put into consideration that her client was a first time convict and for not wasting the pressure time of the court.
Goncalves particularly prayed the court to award her client an option of fine in lieu of the custodian sentence.
Delivering judgment in the charge, Justice Oweibo, after listening to both the prosecutor and the lawyer, sentenced the convict to one year on each count.
The judge, however ordered the convict to pay the sum of N100,000, for each of the counts in lieu of the jail terms.
The judge ordered that the jail-term should run concurrently while the fine should be consecutively.
The judge also ordered that GTB cheque with monetary value of N5 million, tendered as one of the exhibits, be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Comments