Justice Dairus Khobo of the Kaduna High Court, on Thursday, sentenced Olajide Temitope and Samuel James to four months of community service for internet fraud.
The convicts were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Kaduna Zonal Office, on a two-count charge of cheating and impersonation, to which they pleaded guilty.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Khobo said, “I have carefully considered the evidence before the court, the exhibits tendered and the uncontroverted testimony of the prosecution witness.
“This honourable court holds that the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendants are hereby convicted as charged.
“Also, analysis of iPhones and laptops recovered from the convicts yielded fraudulent email addresses and messages, which the defendants confessed to be theirs,” he said.
In sentencing Temitope and James, the judge ordered the convicts to sweep the court premises for four months.
“At the completion of their community service, poor level of compliance, would earn the convicts a direct six months imprisonment,” Khobo added.
He further ordered that one iPhone 11Pro Max and one Vivo mobile device recovered from the convict be forfeited to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Earlier, the EFCC Prosecution Counsel, P.C Onyeneho, said that sometime in June 2022, the convicts fraudulently impersonated and portrayed to be women via their Google account.
Onyeneho said that investigation revealed that they operated on a fake Google account and an Instagram account where they intended to defraud unsuspecting victims, mostly American residents, of their hard-earned money.
The prosecutor stated that the convicts committed an offence contrary to Section 22(2) (b) (i) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22 (2) of the same Act
